Breaking system and method

摘要

A substrate is held on a table 22, and the substrate is caused to project beyond a lateral side of the table 22 and is positioned by a positioning section 30. Then, that part of the substrate 23 which is located on the table is locked in place by a clamping section 40. Subsequently the substrate is broken along a scribing line, with its projecting part kept pressed from above, by using a breaking unit 50. In this way, a substrate of even smaller size can be precisely broken with ease under uniform application of pressure.