A water-based cutting fluid that comprises water and a water-soluble polyalkylene glycol (PAG) having cloud point from 30° C. to 80° C. The cutting fluid is water-based, i.e., it comprises at least 50 percent by weight (wt %) water. The cutting fluids are well suited for use with diamond wiresaws for the cutting of silicon ingots. The fluids exhibit one or more of low hydrogen generation, no wafer cleaning issues, good lubricity, good cooling efficiency, good swarf suspension and dispersion, low foaming, are generally non-sensitive to metal ions, and are nonflammable.

There is provided a laser processing method for cutting a semiconductor object along a virtual plane facing a surface of the semiconductor object in the semiconductor object. The laser processing method includes a first step of forming a plurality of first modified spots along the virtual plane to obtain first formation density, by causing laser light to enter into the semiconductor object from the surface, and a second step of forming a plurality of second modified spots along the virtual plane so as to obtain second formation density higher than the first formation density, by causing laser light to enter into the semiconductor object from the surface after the first step.

A protective member forming apparatus includes an integrating unit that integrates a resin sheet held by a chuck table with a wafer by a resin, a conveying unit that conveys the wafer, and a cutting unit that holds, by a cutting table, the wafer integrated with the resin sheet conveyed by the conveying unit and cuts the resin sheet by a cutting section along the wafer. The cutting unit includes a detection unit that images the wafer by a camera and detects a position of a periphery of the wafer, and a control unit that causes cutting of the resin sheet by the cutting section to be performed only in the case where a peripheral edge of the wafer detected coincides with a track of a cutter blade of the cutting section when the preset resin sheet is cut.

Abrasive material regeneration method regenerates a cerium oxide abrasive material from a used abrasive material slurry containing the cerium oxide abrasive material and resulting from grinding a grinding subject having silicon as the primary component, characterized by regenerating the abrasive material containing cerium oxide through: a slurry recovery step (A) for recovering an abrasive material slurry discharged from a grinder; an isolation/concentration step (B) for adding a magnesium salt as an inorganic salt to the recovered abrasive material slurry, aggregating the abrasive material under the condition that the pH value of the mother liquor converted to 25 DEG C is at least 6.5 and less than 10.0, and thus isolating and concentrating the abrasive material from the mother liquor; and an abrasive material recovery step (C) for recovering the isolated and concentrated abrasive material.

A wafer producing method for producing a hexagonal single crystal wafer from a hexagonal single crystal ingot includes a separation start point forming step of setting the focal point of a laser beam inside the ingot at a predetermined depth from the upper surface of the ingot, which depth corresponds to the thickness of the wafer to be produced, and next applying the laser beam to the upper surface of the ingot while relatively moving the focal point and the ingot to thereby form a modified layer parallel to the upper surface of the ingot and cracks extending from the modified layer, thus forming a separation start point. In the separation start point forming step, the laser beam is applied to the ingot plural times with the focal point of the laser beam set at the modified layer previously formed, thereby separating the cracks from the modified layer.

A wafer dividing apparatus for dividing a wafer stuck to an adhesive tape and supported at an opening of a frame into individual chips along a scheduled division line is provided. The wafer dividing apparatus includes a cassette table movable upwardly and downwardly in a Z axis direction, a first carry-out/in unit that carries out the frame from the cassette placed on the cassette table or carry in the frame to the cassette, a first temporary receiving unit including a pair of first guide rails extending in the X axis direction and a guide rail opening/closing portion that increases the distance between the pair of first guide rails, a reversing unit including a holding portion that holds the frame and rotates by 180 degrees to reverse the front and back of the frame, and a transport unit that moves the reversed frame.

A wafer is produced from an ingot by confirming whether or not an inclined c-axis of the ingot and a second orientation flat of the ingot are perpendicular to each other, and detecting a processing feed direction perpendicular to the direction in which the c-axis is inclined. The method includes performing sampling irradiation of the ingot with a laser beam, along a direction parallel to the second orientation flat and a plurality of directions inclined clockwise and counterclockwise by respective predetermined angles from the second orientation flat, thereby forming a plurality of sampled reduced strength areas in the ingot; measuring the number of nodes which exist per unit length on each of the sampled reduced strength areas, and determining a direction in which the sampled reduced strength area where the measured number of nodes is zero extends as a processing feed direction.

An SiC wafer is produced from an SiC ingot by a method that includes a first modified layer forming step and a second modified layer forming step. In the first step, a first laser beam having a first power forms a plurality of discrete first modified layers at a first depth inside the ingot. In the second step, a second laser beam having a second power greater than the first power is applied to the ingot with the second laser beam focused at a depth greater than the first depth. A beam spot of the second laser beam overlaps any one of the plural first modified layers, thereby continuously forming a plurality of second modified layers connected in a line at the first depth. Cracks are formed on both sides of the line of the plural second modified layers so as to extend along a c-plane in the ingot.

Methods, wires, and apparatus for use in cutting (e.g., slicing) hard, brittle materials is provided. The wire can be a super-abrasive wire that includes a wire core and super-abrasive particles bonded to the wire core via a metal bonding layer. This wire, or another type of wire, can be used to slice workpieces useful for producing wafers. The workpieces can be aligned within a holder to produce wafers using the device and methods presently provided. The holder rotates about its central axis, which translates to workpieces moving in orbit around this axis. A single abrasive wire, or multiple turns of wire stretched tightly between wire guides, is then contacted with the rotating holder to slice the workpieces.

Systems and method for creating crystalline parts having a desired primary and secondary crystallographic orientations are provided. One embodiment may take the form of a method of manufacturing a part having a crystalline structure. The method includes melting aluminum oxide and drawing the melted aluminum oxide up a slit. Additionally, the method includes orienting the seed crystal relative to a growth apparatus such that a crystalline structure grows having a desired primary plane and a desired secondary plane orientation. Moreover, the method includes pulling the crystal as it forms to create a ribbon shaped crystalline structure and cutting a part from the crystalline structure.