JP2552407B2 - Method and apparatus for reinforcing outer peripheral portion of semiconductor wafer and reinforcing member - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer and a reinforcing member. More specifically, when the semiconductor wafer is cut into two parts by the inner peripheral slicer from the center of its thickness and width, in order to prevent the outer peripheral part of the semiconductor wafer from being damaged or the like, a separate part is provided near the cutting end of the outer peripheral part of the semiconductor wafer. Improving the method of reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer by bonding and attaching the reinforcing member formed in the adhesive with an adhesive;
The present invention relates to a reinforcing device and a reinforcing member suitable for performing the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When manufacturing a substrate for a discrete device, a semiconductor wafer having an impurity diffusion layer on both sides and an impurity non-diffusion layer in the center is divided into two parts from the center of its thickness with an inner peripheral slicer. Cutting technology (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-1457)
No. 26, etc.) and a technique for reinforcing the vicinity of the cutting end of the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer to be cut (Japanese Patent Application No. 1-3222).
No. 22, etc.) have been previously proposed by the present applicant in large numbers.

Conventionally, as a technique for reinforcing the periphery of the cutting edge of the semiconductor wafer, for example, a large number of semiconductor wafers are arranged side by side and the same number of reinforcements as the semiconductor wafers formed separately from the semiconductor wafers. A thermosetting resin adhesive is applied to and abutted on a member, and heat treatment is performed as it is to cure the thermosetting resin adhesive, and a reinforcing member is adhesively attached to a semiconductor wafer.

In such a conventional reinforcing means, since a large number of semiconductor wafers and reinforcing members are processed at the same time, there are many steps that must be carried out manually such as arranging the reinforcing members side by side, and the mounting of the reinforcing members is labor-saving. It has a problem that it is not done.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and a semiconductor wafer to which a reinforcing member can be attached precisely and efficiently continuously for each semiconductor wafer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of, and a reinforcing device and a reinforcing member suitable for carrying out this method.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a method for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention comprises:
Prevents damage to the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer when a semiconductor wafer having impurity diffusion layers on both sides and an impurity non-diffusion layer in the center is cut into two parts with an inner peripheral slicer from the center of its thickness width. Therefore, in a method of reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer, a separately formed reinforcing member is bonded and attached by an adhesive so as to come into contact with the vicinity of a cutting end of the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer. After adhering one reinforcing member formed so as to have an adhesive and one semiconductor wafer in a vertical plane, the semiconductor wafer is placed below the vertical plane and the reinforcing member is placed above the vertical plane. A means characterized by carrying out subsequent processing such as carrying in the above state and storing in a carrier is adopted.

[0007] Further, the apparatus for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention comprises: a wafer supply unit capable of transferring unprocessed semiconductor wafers to which a reinforcing member is not attached one by one;
A wafer recovery unit that can receive processed semiconductor wafers one by one with the reinforcing member attached, and one reinforcing member.
At least 1 by adsorbing each of the semiconductor wafers on the vertical plane
A rotation holding mechanism that can rotate 80 degrees, a reinforcing member supply unit that supplies to the rotation holding mechanism one by one a reinforcing member formed so as to have an arc length of less than half of the outer circumference of the semiconductor wafer, and the rotation holding mechanism is attracted to the rotation holding mechanism. Adopting a means consisting of a coating mechanism for applying an adhesive to the rotating reinforcing member, and a transfer mechanism for transferring an unprocessed and processed semiconductor wafer in cooperation with the wafer supply unit, the rotation holding mechanism, and the wafer recovery unit To do.

Further, the reinforcing member on the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention has an arc length less than half of the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer and is capable of contacting near the cutting end of the semiconductor wafer, and has an L-shaped cross section. And a convex portion is formed outside the central portion of the arc length.

[0009]

According to the above-mentioned means, in the method of reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention, one semiconductor wafer and one reinforcing member formed so as to have an arc length less than half of the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer. Are bonded in the vertical plane by using the weight of the semiconductor wafer or the reinforcing member, and then the semiconductor wafer is rotated on the lower side of the vertical plane and the reinforcing member is on the upper side of the vertical plane. When the thermosetting resin adhesive is used as the adhesive, the position where the reinforcing member is attached is fixed even if the adhesive is uncured because it prevents misalignment and performs subsequent processing such as recovery to the carrier. Since there is no misalignment or the thermosetting resin adhesive does not flow, continuous reinforcement can be performed by mechanical means, and the reinforcement member can be attached accurately and efficiently continuously for each semiconductor wafer. Outside the semiconductor wafer Problems can be solved of providing a section method reinforcement.

Further, in the reinforcing device for the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention, the semiconductor wafer and the reinforcing member are sucked and rotated by the rotation holding mechanism, and the rotation holding mechanism and the wafer supply unit and the wafer recovery unit are linked by the transfer mechanism. In addition to transporting the unprocessed and processed semiconductor wafers, the rotation holding mechanism is provided with a reinforcing member supply section to which the reinforcing member is directly supplied. It is possible to carry out the reinforcing process with high accuracy and collect the wafer in the wafer collecting section. Further, the applying mechanism applies the adhesive to the reinforcing member while the reinforcing member attracted to the rotation holding mechanism rotates. This solves the problem of providing an apparatus for reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer suitable for carrying out the method.

Further, since the reinforcing member on the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention has an arc length less than half of the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer and an L-shaped cross-section, the semiconductor member is bonded at the time of bonding. Since it is easy to contact the wafer and is automatically positioned, and the convex portion is formed outside the central portion of the arc length, the recovery operation when the semiconductor wafer is divided into two becomes easy. This solves the problem of providing a reinforcing member for an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer suitable for performing the above method.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a method for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer, a reinforcing device and a reinforcing member according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, a basic outline of an embodiment of a method for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1A, a semiconductor wafer W
Semiconductor wafer W having an arc length less than half of the outer circumference of
One reinforcing member P, which is formed separately from, is coated with an adhesive, for example, a molten wax or a thermosetting resin adhesive E on the inner surface of the arc, and fixed on the lower side of the vertical surface. When one semiconductor wafer W is lowered on the reinforcing member P in the same vertical plane as shown in FIG. 1B, the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P are pressure-bonded by the weight of the semiconductor wafer W. can do. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1C, when the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P are rotated 180 degrees in the vertical plane and the upper and lower positions of the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P are reversed, the adhesive E is immediately removed. It is possible to prevent the reinforcing member P from falling off, being displaced, and the like due to not being cured. That is, one semiconductor wafer W is dropped onto one reinforcing member P in the vertical plane, and then the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P are
The reinforcing member P can be attached to the semiconductor wafer W by performing a continuous operation in which both are rotated by 180 degrees. After this, the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P may be housed in the wafer carrier C, and the adhesive E may be cured by being left at room temperature or by heat treatment.

Next, details of the reinforcing member P used in the above-described reinforcing method will be described with reference to FIGS.

The reinforcing member P is made of a synthetic resin, such as polystyrene resin or epoxy resin, which does not impair the cutting property of the inner peripheral type slicer and which is easily molded, and has an arc length less than half the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer W. The semiconductor wafer W is formed in a shape that can be brought into contact with the vicinity of the cutting end of the wafer. 2 and 3
As shown in, the cross-sectional shape in the direction orthogonal to the arc length direction is L
The semiconductor wafer W is formed in a letter shape and has two surfaces Pa and Pb.
And the semiconductor wafer W is accurately positioned. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a convex portion Pc is formed outside the central portion of the arc length, and a margin area for cutting by the inner peripheral slicer is ensured, so that the divided separation piece at the time of dividing the semiconductor wafer W into two pieces. Enables adjustment of collection timing,
The collection work is made easy.

Next, an embodiment of the reinforcing device used in the above-described reinforcing method will be described with reference to FIGS.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a rotation holding mechanism 1 for adsorbing and rotating one semiconductor wafer W and one reinforcing member P is installed in the central portion. The unprocessed semiconductor wafers W to which the reinforcing members P are not attached on both sides of the wafer sandwiching the wafer supply unit 2 and the processed semiconductor wafers W to which the reinforcing members P are attached can be received one by one. A wafer recovery unit 3 is installed, and a transfer mechanism 4 for transferring an unprocessed and processed semiconductor wafer W is linearly arranged between the rotation holding mechanism 1, the wafer supply unit 2, and the wafer recovery unit 3. There is. Further, the rotation holding mechanism is provided with the reinforcement member supply section 5 for supplying the reinforcement members P one by one, adjacent to each other in the direction orthogonal to the transport mechanism 4,
An application mechanism 6 for applying the adhesive E to the reinforcing member P is installed close to the reinforcing member supply unit 5 in the vertical direction (see FIG. 6).

As shown in detail in FIG. 5, the rotary holding mechanism 1 includes a suction plate 11 which is vertically set to suck one semiconductor wafer W and one reinforcing member P on a vertical surface. ing. This suction plate 11 is a stepping motor 12
Is used as a drive source and is rotated through the reduction gear 13 at a low speed in a forward / reverse reciprocation of 180 degrees. Further, the suction plate 11 is provided with a vacuum suction system 14 for sucking the reinforcing member P and a vacuum suction system 15 for sucking the semiconductor wafer W independently of each other, and connecting ends thereof are V ₁ , V _{2 respectively.} It is illustrated in. Further, a positioning base 16 for the semiconductor wafer W is provided near the front lower end of the suction plate 11. Each of the above parts is installed on a moving table 19 which moves on a guide rail 18 by a feed screw 17 rotated by a stepping motor (not shown).

The wafer supply unit 2 moves a pedestal 21 accommodating a wafer carrier C in which unprocessed semiconductor wafers W are arranged side by side on a guide rail 24 by means of a feed screw 23 rotated by a stepping motor 22 to move each semiconductor wafer. The W can be sequentially positioned at a fixed position. The unprocessed semiconductor wafers W are arranged in parallel with the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism 1.

The wafer recovery unit 3 is similar to the wafer supply unit 2 in that the pedestal 31, the stepping motor 32, the feed screw 33,
With the structure including the guide rails 34, the processed semiconductor wafers W can be sequentially arranged in parallel in the underwriting wafer carrier C at certain positions. The processed semiconductor wafers W are arranged in parallel with the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism 1.

The transfer mechanism 4 uses a rodless cylinder, and is provided with a pair of suction pads 41, 42 with a space corresponding to the space between the wafer supply unit 2, the wafer recovery unit 3 and the rotation holding mechanism 1. ing. These suction pads 41,
42 is provided with air cylinders 43 and 44 for raising and lowering and air cylinders 45 and 46 for horizontally moving (FIGS. 4 and 7 to 7).
16), both suction pads 41, 42 can be horizontally moved integrally in the arrangement direction by the piston mount (moving body) 47 of the transport mechanism 4, and each suction pad 41, 4 can be moved.
Each of the two can independently move horizontally in a direction orthogonal to the arrangement direction and can move up and down. That is, the unprocessed semiconductor wafer W is taken out from the wafer supply unit 2 by one suction pad 41 and transferred to the rotation holding mechanism 1, and the processed semiconductor wafer W is taken out from the rotation holding mechanism 1 by the other suction pad 42 and the wafer is held. It can be handed over to the collection unit 3.

As shown in detail in FIG. 6, the reinforcing member supply section 5 is provided so as to face the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism, and a large number of reinforcing members P are arranged with the convex portion Pc on the upper side.
The suction plate 1 of the rotation holding mechanism is provided on the opposite side of the character-shaped surfaces Pa and Pb.
1 and the nut-shaped moving element 53 screwed to the feed screw 52 which is rotated by the stepping motor 51 to attach the reinforcing members P one by one to the suction plate 1 of the rotation holding mechanism.
It is designed to be sent to the upper side of 1.

As shown in detail in FIG. 6, the coating mechanism 6 has a nozzle 61 provided below the reinforcing member supply section 5 for discharging the adhesive E, and an adjusting section 62 for adjusting the position of the nozzle 61.
It has and. The nozzle 61 can apply the adhesive E while the reinforcing member P attracted to the upper side of the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism 1 rotates downward. In order to ensure the timing of discharging the adhesive E from the nozzle 61, the photodetector 7 including the light projecting portion 71 and the light receiving portion 72 is installed so as to detect the rotating state of the reinforcing member P.

Hereinafter, a detailed embodiment of the reinforcing method will be described together with the operation of the embodiment of the reinforcing device described above based on FIGS. 7 to 15. 7 to 15 show the positional relationship between the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism 1 and the reinforcing member supply section 5, and (B) shows the reinforcing member P and the semiconductor wafer W.
And (C) shows the relationship between the rotation holding mechanism 1, the wafer supply unit 2, the wafer collecting unit 3, and the transfer mechanism 4.

In FIG. 7, the mounting of the reinforcing member P on the semiconductor wafer W by the rotation holding mechanism 1 is completed, and one unprocessed semiconductor wafer W is transferred to the wafer supply unit 2 by one suction pad 41 of the transfer mechanism 4. Rotation holding mechanism 1 taken out from
A state is shown in which the semiconductor wafer W that is on standby above and processed by the other suction pad 42 of the transfer mechanism 4 is taken out from the rotation holding mechanism 1 and is on standby in the wafer recovery unit 3.

From the state of FIG. 7, the standby is held, and first, as shown in FIG. 8, the suction plate 11 of the rotation holding mechanism 1 is held.
To the reinforcing member supply section 5 to receive and adsorb one reinforcing member P, and then, as shown in FIGS. Apply E.

After that, as shown in FIG. 12, the standby is released, and the processed semiconductor wafer W attracted by the other suction pad 42 of the transfer mechanism 4 is delivered to the wafer recovery unit 3 and the transfer mechanism is transferred. 4 one suction pad 41
The unprocessed semiconductor wafer W adsorbed by is slightly dropped onto the positioning table 16 of the one-time rotation holding mechanism 1, and then the semiconductor wafer W is fitted to the reinforcing member P by the air cylinder 45 for horizontal movement. . As a result, the weight of the semiconductor wafer W causes the semiconductor wafer W to be pressure-bonded to the reinforcing member P held in vacuum.

After the reinforcing member P is once attached to the semiconductor wafer W in this manner, the reinforcing member P and the semiconductor wafer W are held in vacuum because the adhesive E is generally not yet cured as shown in FIG. Then, the suction plate 11 of the rotary holding mechanism 1 is immediately rotated in the reverse direction by 180 degrees to reverse the upper and lower positions of the semiconductor wafer W and the reinforcing member P to suck the processed wafer and the unprocessed wafer as shown in FIG. After rising as shown in FIG. 15, it moves to the left in the figure and returns to the state of FIG. 7 again.

[0030]

As described above, in the method of reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention, one semiconductor wafer and one reinforcing member are bonded in the vertical plane, and the semiconductor wafer is bonded in the vertical plane. Since the position is set so that the reinforcing member is on the lower side, even if a thermosetting resin adhesive is used as the adhesive,
Continuous operation is possible without waiting for the curing time of the adhesive, and displacement of the reinforcing member is prevented, and mounting accuracy is improved. Therefore, each semiconductor wafer can be continuously and accurately and efficiently. There is an effect that a reinforcing member can be attached.

Further, the apparatus for reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention is provided with each part mechanism for carrying out the method to contribute to the achievement of the above-mentioned effect, and at the same time, the rotation holding mechanism for sucking and rotating the semiconductor wafer and the reinforcing member. Since the respective mechanisms are arranged centering around, the whole is made compact, and since the adhesive is applied by utilizing the rotation of the reinforcing member, there is an effect that the mounting efficiency of the reinforcing member becomes very good.

Further, the reinforcing member on the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention has a structure having an L-shaped cross section to enhance the contact property with the semiconductor wafer when the method is carried out and contribute to the achievement of the above-mentioned effect. This has the effect of facilitating the recovery work when dividing into two by the circumferential slicer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing an embodiment of a method for reinforcing an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention, showing steps in the order of (A) to (C).

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1A, showing an embodiment of a reinforcing member on the outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line YY of FIG. 1A, like FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a reinforcing device for an outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention.

5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view of another main part of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic bottom view showing the operation of the embodiment of the reinforcing device for the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer according to the present invention.

8 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 7. FIG.

9 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 8. FIG.

FIG. 10 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 12.

14 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 13. FIG.

15 is a simplified diagram of the operation following FIG. 14. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rotation holding mechanism 2 Wafer supply part 3 Wafer collection part 4 Transfer mechanism 5 Reinforcement member supply part 6 Coating mechanism P Reinforcement member W Semiconductor wafer

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer when a semiconductor wafer having an impurity diffusion layer on both sides and an impurity non-diffusion layer in the center is cut into two parts with an inner peripheral slicer from the center of its thickness width. In order to prevent damage to the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer, a method of reinforcing the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer is described. After adhering one semiconductor wafer and a single reinforcing member formed to have an arc length of less than half and coated with an adhesive in a vertical plane, the semiconductor wafer is attached to the lower side of the vertical plane. A method of reinforcing the outer peripheral portion of a semiconductor wafer, characterized in that the subsequent processing is performed in a state of being on the upper side of the vertical surface. 2. A wafer supply unit capable of delivering unprocessed semiconductor wafers to which no reinforcing member is attached one by one,
A wafer recovery unit that can receive processed semiconductor wafers one by one with the reinforcing member attached, and one reinforcing member.
At least 1 by adsorbing each of the semiconductor wafers on the vertical plane
A rotation holding mechanism that can rotate by 80 degrees, a reinforcement member supply unit that supplies to the rotation holding mechanism one by one a reinforcement member formed so as to have an arc length of less than half of the outer circumference of the semiconductor wafer, and the rotation holding mechanism is attracted to the rotation holding mechanism. A semiconductor wafer including a coating mechanism that applies an adhesive to a rotating reinforcing member, and a transfer mechanism that transfers an unprocessed and processed semiconductor wafer in cooperation with a wafer supply unit, a rotation holding mechanism, and a wafer recovery unit. Reinforcement device on the outer periphery. 3. A semiconductor wafer having an arc length less than half of the outer circumference, capable of abutting near the cutting end of the semiconductor wafer, having an L-shaped cross section, and having a convex portion outside the center of the arc length. Reinforcing member for the outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer formed with.