Wafer Dicing Service
APD's Wafer Dicing Process Capabilities:
- Make cuts as thin as 20 microns wide
- Perform trenching with variations in depths to < 5 micrometers over a 200-millimeter cut.
- Process wafers as thin as 50 microns
- Cut wafers as thick as 10 mm
- Cut a wide range of wafer sizes up to 300 mm in diameter
- Cut die as small as 100 microns square
- Process irregular-shaped die - triangular, hexagonal, etc
- Create a custom trench profile by placing cuts inside of cuts
- Dice Before Grind (DBG) processing
- Ship in Gel Packs, waffles packs, and on tape and ring
Wafer Dicing Methods
The basic wafer dicing process has been around since the 1950s. Here I would like to describe some of the methods used in that process. The following has been included to provide background on the subject of wafer dicing. APD does not mean that they are all available as in-house processes. Some are in-house programs, others are managed by outside partners, and others we describe as a reference only.
Mechanical Singulation Processes
The wafer dicing method using mechanical sawing processes are Scribe and Break, Wafer Sawing using a diamond blade, and dicing before grinding (DBG). The Scribe and Break process is a dry process and is most useful for singulating MEMs (microelectromechanical) and other devices that do not do well in a wet environment. This method does become problematic when trying to cleave thicker materials.
Laser Singulation Processes
The laser dicing processes are laser ablation, stealth laser dicing, and thermal laser separation. The stealth laser dicing process is very clean and useful for singulating MEMs devices.
Other Singulation Processes
The Plasma dicing process has a speed and cost advantage when a large wafer with very tiny die is required to be singulated. There are other more exotic methods, but I wanted to touch on the mainstream processes.
- Communication of Project by Email or Phone
- APD creates a Quote, the customer accepts it, and ships his material to us
- Receive and inspect the material to ensure it survived the trip to our facility. We always contact the customer if there are issues.
- Create production documentation and send it to production.
- The production manager reviews customer requirements and creates a processing plan. They are utilizing his expertise and a decades-old worldwide database of previously completed jobs. At this point, the customer is occasionally called.
- If the wafer surface has to be protected, surface protection is added at this point.
- Material is mounted for dicing and left to finish curing to the mounting medium.
- The proper blade is chosen and installed on the dicing saw and dressed.
- The machine is programmed, and the wafer is installed on the dicing saw.
- The wafer is then cut to the customer's specifications.
- After the wafer has been diced, it is washed in a high-pressure spin washer.
- After washing and drying, the wafer is sent to QA, where it is inspected, and a report is created.
- The wafer is then packaged and shipped to the customer.
- The invoice is sent to the customer.
