JP3604953B2 - Method of manufacturing element substrate for liquid jet recording head and method of manufacturing liquid jet recording head - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a manufacturing method of the liquid body jet recording element substrate head for use in a liquid jet recording method which performs recording on a recording medium such as a recording paper by ejecting droplets of recording liquid such as ink from a fine discharge port And a method for manufacturing a liquid jet head .
[0002]
The liquid jet recording head manufactured according to the present invention is a printer, a copier, and a communication system for performing recording on a recording medium such as paper, thread, fiber, cloth, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, and ceramics. And an apparatus such as a facsimile having a printer, a word processor having a printer section, and an industrial recording apparatus combined with various processing apparatuses. Here, “recording” in the present invention means not only giving an image having a meaning such as a character or a figure to a recording medium, but also giving an image having no meaning such as a pattern. Is what it means.
[0003]
[Prior art]
A typical form of a liquid jet recording head used in a liquid jet recording system (inkjet recording system) is a unit element in which a plurality of ejection energy generating elements are formed on a substrate at predetermined intervals, and a unit such as ink. A top plate having a plurality of ejection ports for ejecting the recording liquid and a plurality of grooves serving as flow paths communicating with the respective ejection ports is formed, and the ejection energy generating element and the grooves serving as flow paths are accurately positioned. It is obtained by joining the unit element and the top plate in the state of being combined. The liquid jet recording head performs printing on a recording medium such as recording paper by ejecting recording liquid as droplets from ejection ports by applying ejection energy to recording liquid in a flow path by an ejection energy generating element. It is configured as follows.
[0004]
By the way, recently, in a liquid jet recording head, it is required to achieve both an increase in printing speed and an improvement in image quality. As a liquid ejection recording head that can cope with this, for example, there is a long liquid ejection recording head as shown in FIG. In this kind of long liquid jet recording head, a plurality of unit elements 100 (first substrates) including a plurality of ejection energy generating elements (for example, heating elements) 101 are made of a material such as metal or ceramic. A recording element of a long line head is formed by accurately positioning and arranging the recording element on the base plate 102, and a plurality of discharge ports 106 for discharging a recording liquid thereon and a plurality of liquid flow paths (not shown) communicating with the respective discharge ports 106 ) And a top plate 105 (second substrate) having a concave portion for forming a common liquid chamber (not shown) for supplying a recording liquid to each liquid flow path (not shown). The liquid flow path and the common liquid chamber are collectively referred to as a "passage." The unit element 100 including a plurality of heating elements as the ejection energy generating element 101 is manufactured by cutting a silicon substrate on which a plurality of unit elements are patterned by a film forming process or the like to separate individual unit elements. . Such a long liquid jet recording head is a high-performance recording head capable of realizing a high-definition image by increasing the arrangement density of ejection energy generating elements (heating elements) and the processing density of grooves on the top plate.
[0005]
In the process of manufacturing this long liquid jet recording head, arranging the unit elements with high precision and as close as possible to each other is an important technology for preventing deterioration in image quality due to streaks at high recording density. In order to obtain such high alignment accuracy, it is required to cut the silicon substrate with high accuracy.
[0006]
With respect to such a demand for cutting accuracy and related improvement in arrangement accuracy, an effective technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-212162 (US Pat. No. 4,851,371). In other words, it is considered that the circuit network is broken due to microscopic damage (microscopic damage such as breakage and cracking) generated on the chip surface generated when cutting the silicon wafer, and cutting along the cutting street between unit elements to be cut. The blade is cut with a high degree of inclination, and a line arrangement is realized at the surface of the cut portion, but separated at the bottom surface, thereby realizing an arrangement structure.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the technique disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-212162, two cuts for forming a surface having a cut edge inclined in the opposite direction and a process of removing unnecessary portions (cutting or etching) are performed. For this reason, it is required that the arrangement width of the unit elements integrated in the silicon wafer (the distance between the unit elements in the vertical and horizontal directions) be set to some extent. Also, even if this distance can be taken with a narrow width, it is extremely difficult to prevent damage to the chip surface from reaching the circuit pattern unless a thin cutting blade is used. . As described in the above-mentioned publication, cutting with a thin cutting blade has a large variation tolerance in the cutting width, and in order to eliminate this, the resin bonding blade is smoothed considerably (precut, dressing, etc.). There is a need. Therefore, when a large number of unit elements are produced by cutting, it is expected that the time required to process one product will be considerably increased. Further, in order to form a pair of cuts inclined in opposite directions, it is necessary to rotate the heating element wafer by 180 degrees, and this rotation also requires considerably high precision.
[0008]
Accordingly, the present invention, the was made in view of the unresolved problems of the prior art, when cutting the U Fine making individual unit elements (element substrate), unnecessarily high accuracy Moreover damage of the element substrate surface in the cutting portion can also be prevented, and the element the liquid jet recording head element that Ru can obtain a cut end face of the element substrate to improve the sequence accuracy of the substrate without the need for cutting It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a substrate and a method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head .
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object by demanding strict precision and managing a normal cutting blade, the present inventor has added a "blade surface roughness" in addition to a main parameter for determining "bending of a blade" disclosed in the above publication. Focused on "sa", we studied diligently. Regarding the cutting blade, no matter how the thickness of the blade, the amount of exposure, the depth of the cut, the dicing speed, etc. are adjusted, it is not possible to completely eliminate the occurrence of cracks and cracks on the cut cut surface. However, it was found that the finer the roughness of the particles forming the surface of the blade, the better the cutting state and the better the linearity. However, if the surface roughness of the blade is too fine, problems such as the brittleness of the blade and its rapid wear occur. Therefore, it is necessary to specify an appropriate range of the surface roughness. Qualitatively, the condition for obtaining a good cutting state is to cut slowly with a blade having a moderately thick blade and a fine surface roughness. The present inventor has completed the present invention based on such knowledge as a method for solving the above-described problem.
[0010]
A method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate of the present invention, an energy generating element manufacturing method of the element substrate for liquid jet recording head provided for generating energy to be utilized for discharging liquid, the wafer A first step of mounting a first dicing tape on the back surface, and after the first step, cutting the wafer from the front side with a cutting blade and cutting the first dicing tape without cutting. a groove is formed, a second step of carving the element substrate, after the second step, a third step of expanding the interval of the element substrate to each other with the first dicing tape, the third step after the fourth step of mounting a second dicing tape on the surface of the element substrate, after the fourth step, from the back side of the element substrate, the first dicing A fifth step of running a cutting blade along the cutting groove written Ri off in the second step through the Gutepu, characterized in that it comprises a.
[0011]
Then, in the manufacturing method of the element substrate for liquid jet recording head of the present invention, after the fifth step, preferably further comprising the step of expanding the interval before Symbol element substrate to each other.
[0012]
In the method of manufacturing an element substrate for a liquid jet recording head according to the present invention, it is preferable that an intrusion amount of the cutting blade in the fifth step is equal to or less than an intrusion amount of the cutting blade in the second step. The cutting speed of the cutting blade in the fifth step is desirably equal to or higher than the cutting speed of the cutting blade in the second step, and the surface roughness of the cutting blade in the fifth step is the second step. It is preferable that the surface roughness is equal to the surface roughness of the cutting blade.
[0013]
[Action]
According to the present invention, after the wafer on which the first dicing tape is mounted on the back surface is cut by the cutting blade, a second dicing tape is further mounted on the surface of the element substrate , and the cutting blade is moved from the back surface to the first dicing tape . dicing through the tape by running as traced along the cutting grooves written Ri off by cleavage from the surface with an appropriate amount of inserted accuracy to rough, without causing chipping and cracking on the element substrate, It is possible to obtain a cut end face necessary for realizing high-precision alignment (alignment accuracy) of the element substrates at the time of arrangement without requiring very high accuracy in terms of position.
[0014]
In this way, at least the minimum necessary cutting accuracy can be achieved simply by adding a rough process (a process of further mounting a dicing tape and tracing and cutting) without having to go through complicated and high-precision processes. since the obtained can be at mass production improve remain walking.
[0015]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0016]
1 and 2 are process diagrams illustrating a method of manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate according to a first embodiment of the present invention in the order of processes, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a flowchart showing, as blocks, main steps of a method of manufacturing the element substrate for a liquid jet recording head. Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing an element substrate for a liquid jet recording head according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0017]
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, a silicon wafer ( wafer ) 1 is desirably a unit element ( element substrate) 2 having a plurality of heating elements 2a, 2a,... And functional elements such as electrodes. A predetermined number is arranged and formed based on the layout. First, a first dicing tape 3 is mounted on the back surface of the silicon wafer 1 and attached to a wafer ring 4 ((b) and (c) in FIG. 1 and S2 in FIG. 3). The wafer is fixed to a dicer (not shown), and the silicon wafer 1 is cut along a plurality of cutting streets 10 by a cutting blade (not shown) to be divided into unit elements (chips) 2 as individual element substrates (FIG. 1). (D), S4 in FIG. 3). At the time of this cutting, as shown in FIG. 1D, at the same time as the silicon wafer 1 is cut, the cutting blade is so cut as to slightly cut the first dicing tape 3 mounted on the back surface of the silicon wafer 1. It is preferable that the cutting groove 11 is formed by invading and cutting. Specifically, a cutting blade having a blade surface roughness indication of 4000 (mesh size) and a blade width of 0.1 mm ± 0.002 mm is used as the cutting blade. The first dicing tape 3 (having a thickness of 0.08 mm) stuck to the first dicing tape 3 was cut at a height (distance from the flange end face to the tape bottom face) of 0.030 mm at the time of cutting. The cutting speed was 3 mm / sec.
[0018]
Thereafter, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B , a second dicing tape 5 is further mounted on the surface of the unit element (chip) 2 which is an element substrate (S6 in FIG. 3), and The silicon wafer 1 is inverted and the wafer ring 4 is fixed to a dicer (not shown) as usual. Then, as shown in FIG. 2 (c), the same or similar cutting as the above-mentioned cutting blade is performed so as to trace the cutting groove 11 cut and dug in the previous cutting step from the rear surface facing upward. running a blade 7, was applied first to the mounted cutting balance and irregularities 12 of the first dicing tape 3 cut groove 11 by first cutting the chip 2 near the bottom while cut (in Figure 2 the hatched in (c) Portion) (S8 in FIG. 3). FIG. 2D illustrates a state in which the cutting is performed so as to trace all the cutting grooves 11. At the time of this cutting, it is preferable that the cutting blade 7 cuts the first dicing tape 3 and cuts the first dicing tape 3 so that the first dicing tape 3 is further cut into about 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness of the wafer. Specifically, the amount of penetration of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface was assumed to be the amount of cutting the dicing tape + α, and the cutting was performed at the same cutting speed of 3 mm / sec with a height of cutting 0.2 mm from the end surface of the dicing tape.
[0019]
In this manner, the first cutting is performed by running the cutting blade 7 along the cutting groove 11 from the back surface of the silicon wafer 1 through the first dicing tape 3 with accuracy and an appropriate amount of rough intrusion. The remaining portion of the cutting groove 11 and the unevenness 12 can be cut off, and a cut end face necessary for realizing high-precision alignment (alignment accuracy) of the unit elements at the time of arrangement can be obtained.
[0020]
Then, after cutting so as to trace all the cutting grooves 11, as shown in FIGS. 2E and 2F, the second dicing tape 5 mounted on the chip surface is expanded (expanded) to silicon. The wafer 1 is expanded. Thereafter, by removing each element substrate (chip) from the dicing tape, an element substrate with high cutting accuracy can be obtained. Good cutting accuracy refers to a perpendicularity at the time of cutting, a state in which chipping or chipping does not occur on the chip surface, and a state in which there is no flash due to uncut portions on the chip bottom surface.
[0021]
The unit elements ( element substrates) 2 manufactured in this manner are arranged on a base plate with good arrangement accuracy to form a long substrate row, similarly to the liquid jet recording head shown in FIG. A long liquid ejecting recording head capable of obtaining a high-definition image is formed by joining a long top plate (second substrate) having a concave portion constituting a discharge port, a liquid flow path, and the like on a substrate row. can do.
[0022]
The cutting blade used in this example has a blade surface roughness indication of 4000 (mesh size) and a blade width of 0.1 mm ± 0.002 mm. (Scribing (line width) crawling path due to cutting) was scarcely present because the cutting blade had a certain thickness. The surface roughness of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface is desirably equal to the surface roughness of the blade at the time of main cutting from the front surface. The penetration amount of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface is desirably equal to or less than the penetration amount of the blade at the time of main cutting from the front surface, and specifically, is desirably within the range of 0.1 to 0.3 mm. . Further, the cutting speed of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface is desirably equal to or higher than the cutting speed of the blade at the time of main cutting from the front surface, specifically, 3 mm / sec or less, particularly 1.5 to 3 mm / sec. Is desirably within the range.
[0023]
As described above, in the present embodiment, after the tape-mounted silicon wafer is cut, the second dicing tape is further mounted on the surface of the element substrate (chip), and the second dicing tape is inverted and fixed again to the dicer. By moving the cutting blade roughly along the cutting street on the front surface with an appropriate amount of intrusion from the back side in terms of accuracy, realization of high-precision alignment (array accuracy) of the element substrate at the time of arrangement The required cut end surface can be obtained without inclining the side surface of the element substrate . In the above-described prior art, since the second cutting from the chip surface is performed after the wafer is rotated by 180 degrees, it is necessary to rotate the wafer with considerable accuracy so as not to damage the circuit pattern. In addition, since it is a tracing through a mounting tape, it does not break or break, does not require high positional accuracy, and maintains the cutting end surface condition at the level required by post-process alignment accuracy. Obtainable.
[0024]
Next, a method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
[0025]
Also in this embodiment, the processes up to the cutting from the front side of the silicon wafer are performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment. That is, as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1D , a unit element 2 which is an element substrate provided with a plurality of heating elements 2a, 2a,... And functional elements such as electrodes is predetermined based on a desired layout. The first dicing tape 3 is mounted on the back surface of the silicon wafer ( wafer ) 1 formed in several arrangements, attached to the wafer ring 4, the wafer ring 4 is fixed to a dicer (not shown), and the silicon wafer is cut by a cutting blade. 1 is cut along the cutting street 10 and divided into individual unit elements (chips) 2. At the time of this cutting, as shown in FIG. 1D, at the same time as the silicon wafer 1 is cut, a cutting blade is inserted so as to slightly cut the first dicing tape 3 attached to the back surface of the silicon wafer 1. To form a cutting groove 11. Specifically, the cutting blade used here has a blade surface roughness indication of 4000 (mesh size) and a blade width of 0.1 mm ± 0.002 mm. The tape (thickness: 0.025 mm) stuck to the (thickness: 0.625 mm) was cut at a height of 0.040 mm at the time of cutting, and cut at a cutting speed of 2.5 mm / sec.
[0026]
Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4A, the first dicing tape 3 mounted on the back surface of the unit element 2 was expanded to expand the silicon wafer 1. The cutting groove 11 becomes an expanded and expanded cutting groove 13. After that, the second dicing tape 5a is mounted on the surface of the unit element (chip) 2 (FIG. 4B). Then, as shown in FIG. 4C, the silicon wafer 1 is turned over, the wafer ring 4 is fixed to a dicer (not shown), and a cutting having a width corresponding to the width of the expanded cutting groove 13 is performed. The blade 7a is moved so as to trace the cutting groove 13 from the upwardly-facing rear surface of the silicon wafer 1 to cut the first dicing tape 3 mounted first while cutting the remainder by the first cutting near the chip bottom surface while cutting the first mounted dicing tape 3; Irregularities 14 (shaded portions in FIG. 4C) are cut off. At the time of this cutting, the cutting blade 7a cuts the first dicing tape 3 and cuts the first dicing tape 3 so that the first dicing tape 3 penetrates the wafer to a depth of about 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness of the wafer. Specifically, a blade having a surface roughness indication of 4000 (mesh size) and a blade width of 1 mm ± 0.002 mm is used as the cutting blade 7a. Assuming + α, in this embodiment, the tape was cut at a height of 0.3 mm from the end face of the tape at a cutting speed of 3 mm / sec.
[0027]
Then, after cutting so as to trace all the cutting grooves 13, the unit elements 2, 2,... Are peeled off from the dicing tape 5a and removed, so that the unit elements 2 with high cutting accuracy can be obtained. The unit elements ( element substrates) 2 manufactured in this manner are arranged on a base plate with good arrangement accuracy to form a long substrate row, similarly to the liquid jet recording head shown in FIG. A long liquid ejecting recording head capable of obtaining a high-definition image is formed by joining a long top plate (second substrate) having a concave portion constituting a discharge port, a liquid flow path, and the like on a substrate row. can do.
[0028]
The cutting blade used for cutting from the back surface in the present embodiment has a blade surface roughness indication of 4000 (mesh size) and a blade width of 1 mm ± 0.002 mm. There was almost no blade on the cutting street due to the considerable thickness of the blade. Also in this embodiment, it is desirable that the surface roughness of the blade when cutting from the back surface is equal to the surface roughness of the blade when cutting from the front surface. The penetration amount of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface is desirably equal to or less than the penetration amount of the blade at the time of main cutting from the front surface, and specifically, is desirably within the range of 0.1 to 0.3 mm. . Further, the cutting speed of the blade at the time of cutting from the back surface is desirably equal to or higher than the cutting speed of the blade at the time of main cutting from the front surface, specifically, 3 mm / sec or less, particularly 1.5 to 3 mm / sec. Is desirably within the range.
[0029]
As described above, in this embodiment, after the tape-mounted silicon wafer is cut and the tape is expanded (expanded), the second dicing tape is mounted on the surface of the unit element and corresponds to the expanded width. The cutting blade is run with a rough penetration amount so as to trace along the cutting street on the front surface from the back surface with the cutting blade. Although there is a time to replace the cutting blade, the chip can be peeled off from the dicing tape after releasing the stress in the expanding direction at the bottom surface of the unit element (chip) generated during expansion by tracing from the back side. It is possible to prevent the chips from colliding with each other and to prevent the occurrence of burrs. Further, it is possible to obtain a unit element having a high cutting accuracy and having a cutting end surface necessary for realizing high-accuracy alignment (alignment accuracy) of the unit elements at the time of arrangement.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, as well the prevention of damage to the device substrate (chip) surface of the cut portion was likely to occur when cutting the U Movement in the manufacturing process of the long liquid jet recording head, complex It is possible to obtain at least the minimum required cutting accuracy by simply adding a rough process (a process of further mounting a dicing tape and tracing and cutting) without having to go through a process that requires high precision. Thus, the yield during mass production can be improved.
[0031]
In addition, in the manufacturing process of a long-array liquid jet recording head, which requires a particularly high-density array, a certain degree of thickness is required when a clear cut surface without cutting or cracking of the element substrate is desired. When a cutting blade having a cutting blade is used, repulsive stress is exerted from an object to be cut, the wear rate of the cutting blade is increased, and the frequency of occurrence of cutting remaining near the bottom surface of the element substrate is increased. The cutting residue near the bottom of the element substrate can be completely cut off, and the arrangement accuracy can be improved. This is effective when the gap between the arranged chips ( element substrates) is to be reduced as much as possible.
[0032]
In addition, although there is time to replace the cutting blade, the device substrate can be peeled off from the dicing tape after the stress in the expanding direction at the bottom surface of the device substrate generated during expansion is released by tracing from the back surface, so that the device substrate can be peeled off from the dicing tape. This has the effect of preventing collision between the element substrates and burrs generated to a considerable extent. In addition, it is possible to obtain an element substrate with a high cutting accuracy having a cut end surface necessary for realizing high-precision alignment (alignment accuracy) of the element substrates at the time of arrangement.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a process diagram showing a first stage of the steps in a method of manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate according to a first embodiment of the present invention in the order of steps.
FIG. 2 is a process diagram illustrating a subsequent stage of the process in the method of manufacturing the element substrate for a liquid jet recording head according to the first embodiment of the present invention in the order of processes.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing, as blocks, main steps of a method of manufacturing an element substrate for a liquid jet recording head according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a process diagram illustrating a subsequent stage of the steps in a method of manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate according to a second embodiment of the present invention in the order of steps.
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the configuration of a long liquid jet recording head.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 silicon wafer ( wafer )
2 Unit element ( element substrate)
2a Heating element 3 (first) dicing tape 4 Wafer ring 5, 5a (second) dicing tape 7, 7a cutting blade 10 cutting street 11, 13 cutting groove 12, 14 remaining cut and unevenness

Claims (6)

A method for manufacturing an element substrate for a liquid jet recording head provided with an energy generating element for generating energy used for discharging a liquid ,
A first step of mounting a first dicing tape on the back surface of the wafer ;
After the first step, a second step of cutting the wafer with a cutting blade from the front side and forming a cutting groove so as to cut the first dicing tape without cutting, and cutting the element substrate,
After the second step, a third step of extending the distance between the element substrates using the first dicing tape;
A fourth step of mounting a second dicing tape on the surface of the element substrate after the third step;
After the fourth step, from the back side of the element substrate, and a fifth step of running cutting blade along the Switching Operation written the cutting groove was in the second step through said first dicing tape,
A method for manufacturing an element substrate for a liquid jet recording head , comprising : The after 5 steps, claim 1 manufacturing method of the element substrate for liquid jet recording head according to further comprising the step of extending the distance between the device substrates to each other. The amount of intrusion disconnect blade in the fifth step, the manufacturing method of the element substrate for liquid jet recording head according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that less amount of penetration the cutting blade in the second step. Cutting speed of disconnect blade in the fifth step, claims 1 to an element substrate for liquid jet recording head according to any one of 3, characterized in that at said cutting blade cutting speed or more in the second step Manufacturing method. Surface roughness of the disconnect blade in the fifth step, a liquid jet recording head according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is comparable to the surface roughness of the cutting blade in the second step A method for manufacturing an element substrate . An energy generated by an energy generating element is provided on a liquid jet recording head element substrate manufactured by the method of manufacturing a liquid jet recording head element substrate according to claim 1. A method for manufacturing a liquid jet recording head, comprising forming a liquid jet recording head by providing a liquid flow path communicating with a discharge port for discharging liquid.

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