Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal – Substrate dicing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-20
2004-06-15
Nelms, David (Department: 2818)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal
Substrate dicing
C438S068000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06750074
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to jigs for semiconductor substrates and methods for manufacturing semiconductor devices using the same, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a step of back grinding the back surface of the semiconductor substrate (wafer), a step of dicing for singularizing into semiconductor elements, and a step of bonding including picking up such singularized semiconductor elements and mounting them to the mounting device; as well as to a jig for semiconductor devices used for such a method.
Recently, with the necessity for semiconductor packages to be light, thin, short and small, the related wafers are also becoming thinner.
In each step such as in the back grind step, when the thickness of the wafer is less than 100 &mgr;m, the wafer transportation and the semiconductor manufacturing process are technically very difficult using conventional methods. For this reason, a method of securely transporting and performing the process of semiconductor manufacturing with thinner wafers is desired.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in manufacturing steps consisting of back grinding the semiconductor substrate (hereinafter also referred to as the wafer), singularizing the wafer into semiconductor elements by dicing, and bonding the singularized semiconductor elements on, for example, the mounting substrate, the transportation and the predetermined processes are carried out with the wafer attached to a tape. Each manufacturing step is described with reference to FIG.
1
.
First, as shown in
FIG. 1A
, a circuit-forming surface is attached to a protection tape
2
(attachment step). Subsequently, as shown in
FIG. 1B
, the wafer
1
is installed to a chuck table
4
and the back surface of the wafer
1
is back grounded by a rotating grind whetstone
3
(back grind step). As a result, the wafer
1
is thinned.
Secondly, a die attach film (not shown) is attached to the back surface of the thinned wafer
1
(die attach mount step).
Subsequently, as shown in
FIG. 1C
, as the protection tape
2
attached to the wafer
1
is peeled, the back surface of the wafer
1
is attached to a dicing tape
6
(tape reapplication step). The dicing tape
6
is previously arranged in a frame
5
having a shape of a frame.
Next, as shown in
FIG. 1D
, the wafer
1
is cut along the predetermined dicing line using a dicing saw
7
, and the wafer is singularized into semiconductor elements
10
(singularization step).
The singularized semiconductor elements
10
are pressed on their back surfaces through the dicing tape
6
using a push up pin
11
and as a result, the semiconductor elements
10
are peeled from the dicing tape
6
, as shown in
FIG. 1E. A
collet
8
is located opposite the push up pin
11
on the upper side, and the peeled semiconductor elements
10
are adsorbed to and held by the collet
8
(pick up step).
The semiconductor elements
10
held by the collet
8
are transferred to the mounting substrate
9
as the collet
8
moves, and are bonded to the predetermined position on the mounting substrate
9
by the die attach film (bonding step). Through these steps, the semiconductor elements
10
formed on the wafer
1
are thinned and singularized, and then mounted on the mounting substrate
9
.
The wafer
1
made extremely thin by the back grind step warps, which was not a problem with a conventional thickness. The thinning of the wafer
1
is not only the direct cause of reduction in the absolute strength of the wafer. When the wafer
1
warps, the performance of each manufacturing step after the back grind step is degraded, and along with transportation of the wafer becomes a factor of breakage failure.
This is significant particularly in the tape reapplication step. In other words, during the tape application, bubbles are likely to enter between the wafer
1
and the dicing tape
6
if the wafer
1
is thin.
When bubbles enter, the wafer
1
and the dicing tape
6
do not adhere at the locations where bubbles exist, and thus the adhesive strength between the wafer
1
and the dicing tape
6
decreases. Furthermore, when heat is applied, the bubbles expand and the wafer
1
and the dicing tape
6
are further separated from each other. Therefore, when bubbles enter, there is a possibility that an appropriate process may not be successfully performed in the steps subsequently conducted (for example, the singularization step), and the yield of the semiconductor manufacturing process is lowered, and in the worst case, the wafer
1
may break due to the expansion of bubbles.
On the other hand, in considering peeling the protection tape, the wafer
1
may break when the protection tape
2
is being peeled, or the wafer
1
may be peeled from the periphery at the start of peeling, and then break.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above problems, the general object of the present invention is to provide a jig for holding the semiconductor substrate so that there is little effect from thinned semiconductor substrates, and for suppressing the occurrence of damage caused by lack of semiconductor substrate strength; and to provide a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the jig.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following measures of the present invention.
The object of the present invention is achieved by a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a semiconductor substrate jig, wherein a method comprises the steps of fixing a semiconductor substrate flatly to a semiconductor substrate jig so as to prevent warps from occurring in the semiconductor substrate; and dicing the semiconductor substrate into a plurality of semiconductor elements while fixed to the semiconductor substrate jig.
According to this invention, since the semiconductor substrate is fixed to the semiconductor substrate jig without warps, the dicing step of the semiconductor substrate can be carried out smoothly.
The object of the present invention is further achieved by a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a semiconductor substrate jig comprising the steps of fixing a semiconductor substrate flatly to the semiconductor substrate jig so as to prevent warps from occurring in the semiconductor substrate; and back grinding the semiconductor substrate while attached to the semiconductor substrate jig.
According to this invention, since the semiconductor substrate is fixed to the semiconductor substrate jig without warps, the back grind step of the semiconductor substrate can be carried out smoothly.
The object of the present invention is achieved by a semiconductor substrate jig used for arranging a film on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the jig has a frame, an expandable member arranged within the frame and increasing or decreasing volume while deforming a shape by being supplied with fluid therein; and the shape is deformed so that the film arranged between the semiconductor substrate and the expandable member presses against the semiconductor substrate as contacting portion of the expandable member to the film is enlarged outwardly from the center of the film as the volume increases.
According to the present invention, when the volume of the expandable member increases, the film arranged between the semiconductor substrate and the expandable member deforms so as to be gradually pushed toward the semiconductor substrate from the center outward, and thus the air (bubbles) between the semiconductor substrate and the film is pushed outward from by the center outward as the expandable member deforms.
Therefore, the bubbles are prevented from remaining between the semiconductor substrate and the film, and the subsequent manufacturing steps are conducted smoothly and thus the breakage failure of the semiconductor substrate caused by the bubbles is prevented.
The above object of the present invention is also achieved by a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a semiconductor substrate jig described above,
Hayasaka Noboru
Shimobeppu Yuzo
Shinjo Yoshiaki
Teshirogi Kazuo
Watanabe Mitsuhisa
Armstrong Kratz Quintos Hanson & Brooks, LLP
Fujitsu Limited
Le Thao P.
Nelms David
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