JP4634820B2 - Cutting equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus for cutting a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer.

  In the semiconductor device manufacturing process, a plurality of regions are partitioned by dividing lines called streets arranged in a lattice pattern on the surface of a substantially disc-shaped semiconductor wafer, and circuits such as ICs, LSIs, etc. are partitioned in these partitioned regions. Form. Then, by cutting the semiconductor wafer along the planned dividing line, the region where the circuit is formed is divided to manufacture individual semiconductor chips. In addition, optical device wafers with gallium nitride compound semiconductors laminated on the surface of sapphire substrates are also divided into individual optical devices such as light-emitting diodes and laser diodes by cutting along the planned division lines, and are widely used in electrical equipment. It's being used.

Cutting along the streets of the above-described semiconductor wafer, optical device wafer, or the like is usually performed by a cutting device called a dicer. The cutting apparatus includes a chuck table for holding a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer, a cutting means having a cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table, and a chuck table and the cutting means. And a cutting feed means for moving them. The cutting means includes a spindle unit having a rotary spindle, a cutting blade mounted on the spindle, and a drive mechanism for driving the rotary spindle to rotate. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1.)
JP-A-7-106284

  In the cutting apparatus described above, the cutting blade is rotated at a rotational speed of 20000 to 40000 rpm, and cutting is performed while supplying cutting water to a cutting region by the cutting blade. However, the cutting water supplied to the cutting region is scattered as waste liquid together with the cutting powder due to the high speed rotation of the cutting blade. For this reason, the scattered waste liquid mist spreads around the cutting area and makes it difficult to visually recognize the cutting area, and the waste liquid mist penetrates into the components of the apparatus and damages precision parts. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned facts, and its main technical problem is to provide a cutting device capable of suppressing the spread of mist of waste liquid scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade. is there.

In order to solve the above main technical problem, according to the present invention, a chuck table for holding a workpiece, a cutting means having a cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table, a chuck table, A cutting feed means for moving the cutting means relative to each other, the cutting means being mounted with a rotating spindle, a spindle housing for rotatably supporting the rotating spindle, and a spindle housing attached to the spindle housing; In a cutting apparatus, comprising: blade cover means that covers the cutting blade; and a cutting water jet nozzle that is supported by the blade cover means and supplies cutting water to a cutting region by the cutting blade.
The said blade cover means, the gas-liquid separating means is arranged to separate the mist of the waste liquid which is caused to scatter by the rotation of the cutting blade in the liquid
The gas-liquid separating means has a front cover wall that covers the side surface of the cutting blade, and a horizontal cross section that is formed continuously with the front cover wall and guides the mist of the waste liquid scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade. An arc-shaped guide wall, an upper wall covering the upper side of the mist guide passage formed along the inner surface of the arc-shaped guide wall, and a partition that divides the mist guide passage into a mist receiving portion and a gas-liquid separation chamber There is provided a cutting device comprising a wall and a bottom wall that covers a lower side of the mist guide passage and has a discharge port .

The blade cover means comprises a fixed cover member attached to the spindle housing and a movable cover member detachably attached to the fixed cover member, and the gas-liquid separation means is detachably attached to the movable cover member. It is preferable that

Cutting device according to the invention, the blade cover means for covering the cutting blade, since the gas-liquid separating means is arranged to separate the mist of the waste liquid which is caused to scatter by the rotation of the cutting blade in the liquid, by the rotation of the cutting blade The scattered waste mist does not spread around the cutting area.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a cutting device configured according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a cutting device constructed in accordance with the present invention. The cutting device in the illustrated embodiment includes a device housing 2 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. In the apparatus housing 2, a chuck table 3 for holding a workpiece is disposed so as to be movable in a direction indicated by an arrow X that is a cutting feed direction. The chuck table 3 includes a suction chuck support 31 and a suction chuck 32 disposed on the suction chuck support 31. A workpiece is illustrated on a holding surface which is the upper surface of the suction chuck 32. Suction holding is performed by operating a suction means that does not. The chuck table 3 is configured to be rotatable by a rotation mechanism (not shown). The chuck table 31 is provided with a clamp 33 for fixing a support frame for supporting a semiconductor wafer, which will be described later, as a workpiece through a protective tape. The chuck table 3 configured as described above can be moved in a cutting feed direction indicated by an arrow X by a cutting feed means (not shown).

The cutting apparatus in the illustrated embodiment includes a spindle unit 4 as cutting means. The spindle unit 4 will be described with reference to FIGS.
The spindle unit 4 is mounted on a moving base (not shown) and is adjusted to move in a direction indicated by an arrow Y that is an indexing direction and a direction indicated by an arrow Z that is a cutting direction. The rotary spindle 42 is supported, and a cutting blade 43 attached to the front end of the rotary spindle 42 is provided. A blade cover means 44 that covers the periphery of the cutting blade 43 is attached to the tip of the spindle housing 41. The blade cover means 44 includes a fixed cover member 441 and a movable cover member 442 that is detachably attached to the fixed cover member 441. The fixed cover member 441 is attached to the tip of the spindle housing 41 by appropriate fixing means. A cutting water ejection nozzle 443 is attached to the fixed cover member 441, and a water supply pipe 444 communicating with the cutting water ejection nozzle 443 is attached. The movable cover member 442 is also provided with a cutting water ejection nozzle 445 and a water supply pipe 446 that communicates with the cutting water ejection nozzle 445. The cutting water ejection nozzle 443 mounted on the fixed cover member 441 and the cutting water ejection nozzle 445 mounted on the movable cover member 442 are disposed on the rear side (spindle housing 41 side) and the front side of the cutting blade 43. The water supply pipes 444 and 446 are connected to cutting water supply means (not shown).

  Here, an attachment structure in which the movable cover member 442 is detachably attached to the fixed cover member 441 will be described mainly with reference to FIG. The fixed cover member 441 is provided with a screw hole 441b that opens to the mounting surface 441a and two positioning projections 441c and 441c that protrude from the mounting surface 441a. On the other hand, the movable cover member 442 has a through hole 442a at a position corresponding to the screw hole 441b provided in the fixed cover member 441. Further, two positioning holes (not shown) in which the two positioning projections 441c and 441c provided on the fixed cover member 441 are fitted on the mounting surface of the movable cover member 442 facing the fixed cover member 441, respectively. ) Is formed. The movable cover member 442 configured in this manner is fitted with two positioning projections 441c and 441c provided in the fixed cover member 441 by fitting two positioning holes (not shown) formed on the mounting surface. A predetermined positional relationship with respect to the fixed cover member 441 is obtained. In this state, the screw hole 441b provided in the fixed cover member 441 and the through hole 442a provided in the movable cover member 442 are positioned to face each other. Then, the movable cover member 442 is fixed by inserting a mounting bolt 45 into a through hole 442a provided in the movable cover member 442 and screwing the mounting bolt 45 into a screw hole 441a provided in the fixed cover member 441. The cover member 441 is attached. The movable cover member 442 is formed with two screw holes 442b and 442b for attaching a gas-liquid separating means to be described later.

The spindle unit 4 in the illustrated embodiment includes gas-liquid separation means 5 that is disposed on the blade cover means 44 and separates the waste liquid mist scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade 43 into liquid . The gas-liquid separation means 5 will be described with reference to FIGS.
The gas-liquid separating means 5 in the illustrated embodiment is formed of, for example, a stainless steel plate, and in particular, as clearly shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a front cover wall 51 that covers the side surface of the cutting blade 43, and the front cover wall An arcuate guide wall 52 that guides the mist of the waste liquid that is formed continuously with 51 and scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade 43, and a mist guide passage 50 that is formed along the inner surface of the arcuate guide wall 52. An upper wall 53 that covers the upper side of the mist, a partition wall 54 that divides the mist guide passage 50 into a mist receiving portion 501 and a gas-liquid separation chamber 502, a first bottom wall 551 that covers the lower side of the mist receiving portion 501, The second bottom wall 552 covers the lower side of the liquid separation chamber 502. A discharge port 56 is provided at the junction between the second bottom wall 552 and the lower part of the arcuate guide wall 52 that forms the gas-liquid separation chamber 502. In the illustrated embodiment, the first lower wall 551 is inclined upward from the front cover wall 51 side toward the arcuate guide wall 52 side as shown in FIG. The front cover wall 51 of the gas-liquid separating means 5 configured in this way has holes 51a and 2 at positions corresponding to the through holes 442a and the two screw holes 442b and 442b formed in the movable cover member 442, respectively. Holes 51b and 51b are provided. Further, an opening 51c is formed in the front cover wall 51 in the illustrated embodiment at a position corresponding to the center portion of the cutting blade 43. The opening 51c is for confirming the rotation of the cutting blade 43, and is not necessarily provided.

  The gas-liquid separating means 5 configured as described above passes the mounting bolts 57, 57 through the two holes 51b, 51b formed in the front cover wall 51, and the mounting bolts 57, 57 are inserted into the movable cover member 442. The two screw holes 442b and 442b respectively formed in are respectively screwed to be attached to the movable cover member 442 as shown in FIG. In this manner, the movable cover member 442 to which the gas-liquid separation means 5 is attached is attached to the fixed cover member 441. That is, the mounting bolt 45 is inserted into the hole 51 a provided in the front cover wall 51 and the through hole 442 a provided in the movable cover member 442, and this mounting bolt 45 is provided in the fixed cover member 441 of the blade cover means 44. The movable cover member 442 to which the gas-liquid separating means 5 is attached is attached to the fixed cover member 441 as shown in FIG.

  The spindle unit 4 as the cutting means configured as described above is moved in the index feed direction indicated by the arrow Y in FIG. 1 by the index feed means (not shown), and at the arrow Z in FIG. 1 by the notch feed means (not shown). It can be moved in the infeed direction shown.

  Referring back to FIG. 1, the description of the cutting apparatus in the illustrated embodiment is for imaging the surface of the workpiece held on the chuck table 3 and detecting a region to be cut by the cutting blade 43. The alignment means 6 is provided. The alignment means 6 includes an imaging means composed of optical means such as a microscope and a CCD camera. In addition, the cutting apparatus includes a display unit 7 that displays an image captured by the alignment unit 6.

  In the cassette mounting area 8a of the apparatus housing 2, a cassette mounting table 8 for mounting a cassette for storing a workpiece is disposed. The cassette mounting table 8 is configured to be movable in the vertical direction by a lifting means (not shown). On the cassette mounting table 8, a cassette 9 for storing the workpiece 10 is mounted. The workpiece 10 accommodated in the cassette 9 has a grid-like street formed on the surface of the wafer, and devices such as ICs, LSIs and LEDs are formed in a plurality of rectangular areas partitioned by the grid-like street. Has been. The workpiece 10 formed in this way is accommodated in the cassette 9 with the back surface attached to the surface of the protective tape 12 attached to the annular support frame 11.

  In the illustrated embodiment, the cutting device is supported by a workpiece 10 (an annular frame 11 supported via a protective tape 12) accommodated in a cassette 9 placed on a cassette placement table 8. ) To the temporary table 14, the conveying means 16 for conveying the workpiece 10 conveyed to the temporary table 14 onto the chuck table 3, and the workpiece cut on the chuck table 3. A cleaning unit 17 that cleans the workpiece 10 and a cleaning transport unit 18 that transports the workpiece 10 cut on the chuck table 3 to the cleaning unit 17 are provided.

The operation of the cutting apparatus configured as described above will be briefly described.
The workpiece 10 accommodated in a predetermined position of the cassette 9 placed on the cassette placement table 8 is positioned at the carry-out position by the vertical movement of the cassette placement table 8 by a lifting means (not shown). Next, the unloading means 15 moves forward and backward to unload the workpiece 10 positioned at the unloading position onto the temporary placement table 14. The workpiece 10 carried out to the temporary placement table 14 is transferred onto the chuck table 3 by the turning operation of the transfer means 16. When the workpiece 10 is placed on the chuck table 3, suction means (not shown) is operated to suck and hold the workpiece 10 on the chuck table 3. Further, the support frame 11 that supports the workpiece 10 via the protective tape 12 is fixed by the clamp 33. The chuck table 3 holding the workpiece 10 in this way is moved to a position immediately below the alignment means 6. When the chuck table 3 is positioned immediately below the alignment means 6, the street formed on the workpiece 10 is detected by the alignment means 6, and the spindle unit 4 is moved and adjusted in the arrow Y direction as the indexing direction. A precision alignment operation with the cutting blade 43 is performed.

  Thereafter, the cutting blade 43 is cut and fed by a predetermined amount in the direction indicated by the arrow Z, and the chuck table 3 holding the workpiece 10 is cut while being rotated at a rotational speed of 20000 to 40000 rpm in the direction indicated by the arrow V in FIG. The semiconductor wafer 10 held on the chuck table 3 is cut along a predetermined street by the cutting blade 43 by moving at a predetermined cutting feed speed in a direction indicated by an arrow X which is a feed direction. At this time, cutting water is supplied to the cutting area by the cutting blade 43 from the cutting water ejection nozzles 443 and 445. When the workpiece 10 is cut along a predetermined street in this way, the chuck table 3 is indexed and fed in the direction indicated by the arrow Y by the street interval, and the above cutting operation is performed. When the cutting operation is performed along all the streets extending in the predetermined direction of the workpiece 10, the chuck table 3 is rotated 90 degrees to extend in a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction of the workpiece 10. By performing the cutting operation along existing streets, all the streets formed in a lattice shape on the workpiece 10 are cut and divided into individual chips. Note that the divided chips do not fall apart due to the action of the protective tape 12, and the state of the wafer supported by the frame 11 is maintained.

  As described above, when the cutting operation is completed along the street of the workpiece 10, the chuck table 3 holding the workpiece 10 is returned to the position where the workpiece 10 is first sucked and held. Then, the suction holding of the workpiece 10 is released. Next, the workpiece 10 is transferred to the cleaning unit 17 by the cleaning transfer unit 18. The workpiece 10 conveyed to the cleaning means 17 is cleaned and dried here. The workpiece 10 thus cleaned and dried is carried out to the temporary table 14 by the conveying means 16. Then, the workpiece 10 is stored in a predetermined position of the cassette 9 by the unloading means 15. Therefore, the unloading means 15 also has a function as a loading means for loading the processed workpiece 10 into the cassette 9.

  During the cutting operation described above, the cutting water is supplied from the cutting water jet nozzles 443 and 445 to the cutting area by the cutting blade 43 to cool the cutting portion. The cutting water that has cooled the cutting portion is mixed with cutting powder to become waste liquid, and this waste liquid becomes mist as the cutting blade 43 rotates in the direction indicated by arrow V in FIG. It is scattered toward the receiving part 501. Thus, the waste liquid mist scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade 43 is introduced into the mist guide passage 50 from the mist receiving portion 501 and flows along the arc-shaped guide wall 52. At this time, the mist collides with and adheres to the inner surface of the arc-shaped guide wall 52 by the inertial force and the centrifugal force. The mist adhering to the inner surface of the arc-shaped guide wall 52 decelerates the liquid component including the cutting powder due to viscosity, flows down along the inner surface of the guide wall 52, and is discharged from the discharge port 56. Accordingly, the waste liquid mist scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade 43 does not spread around the cutting area.

The perspective view of the cutting device comprised according to this invention. The perspective view of the spindle unit with which the cutting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is equipped. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the spindle unit shown in FIG. 2. The perspective view which shows the state which mounted | wore the movable cover member of the blade cover means which comprises the spindle unit shown in FIG. 2 with the gas-liquid separation means. The perspective view of the gas-liquid separation means shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a horizontal sectional view of the gas-liquid separation means shown in FIG. 5.

Explanation of symbols

2: device housing 3: chuck table 4: spindle unit 41: spindle housing 42: rotating spindle 43: cutting blade 44: blade cover means 441: fixed cover member 442: movable cover member 443: cutting water jet nozzle 444: water supply pipe 445 : Cutting water ejection nozzle 446: Water supply pipe 5: Gas-liquid separation means 50: Mist guide passage 501: Gas-liquid separation chamber 502: Mist receiving part 51: Front cover wall 52: Arc-shaped guide wall 53: Upper wall 54: Partition Wall 551: First bottom wall 552: Second bottom wall 56: Discharge port 6: Alignment means 7: Display means 8: Cassette mounting table 9: Cassette 10: Work piece
11: annular support frame 12: protective tape 14: temporary placement table 15: carry-out means 16: transport means 17: cleaning means 18: cleaning transport means

Claims (2)

A chuck table for holding a workpiece, a cutting means having a cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table, and a cutting feed means for relatively moving the chuck table and the cutting means. A rotary spindle on which the cutting means is mounted, a spindle housing for rotatably supporting the rotary spindle, blade cover means attached to the spindle housing and covering the cutting blade, and the blade cover means. In a cutting apparatus comprising a cutting water jet nozzle that is supported and supplies cutting water to a cutting area by a cutting blade,
The said blade cover means, the gas-liquid separating means is arranged to separate the mist of the waste liquid which is caused to scatter by the rotation of the cutting blade in the liquid,
The gas-liquid separation means includes a front cover wall that covers a side surface of the cutting blade;
A guide wall having an arcuate horizontal cross section that guides the mist of waste liquid formed continuously with the front cover wall and scattered by the rotation of the cutting blade;
An upper wall covering the upper side of the mist guide passage formed along the inner surface of the arcuate guide wall;
A partition wall that divides the mist guide passage into a mist receiving portion and a gas-liquid separation chamber;
A cutting apparatus comprising a bottom wall that covers a lower side of the mist guide passage and includes a discharge port . The blade cover means comprises a fixed cover member attached to the spindle housing and a movable cover member detachably attached to the fixed cover member, and the gas-liquid separation means is detachable from the movable cover member. The cutting device according to claim 1 , which is mounted.

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