A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes the steps of first providing a wafer, forming a scribe line on a front side of the wafer, performing a plasma dicing process to dice the wafer along the scribe line without separating the wafer completely, performing a laminating process to form a tape on the front side of the wafer, performing a grinding process on a backside of the wafer, and then performing an expanding process to divide the wafer into chips.

A semiconductor device has a substrate and a slot formed in the substrate. A first electrical component is disposed over the substrate adjacent to the slot. An encapsulant is deposited over the first electrical component with a surface of the encapsulant coplanar to a surface of the substrate within the slot. A shielding layer is formed over the encapsulant and physically contacting the surface of the substrate within the slot. The substrate is singulated to form a semiconductor package with the first electrical component after forming the shielding layer.

A protective film substance for laser processing includes a solution including a water-soluble resin, an organic solvent, and a light absorbent. The solution has an absorbance, i.e., an absorbance converted for a solution diluted 200 times, equal to 0.05 or more per an optical path length of 1 cm at a wavelength of 532 nm. Alternatively, the protective film substance for laser processing includes a solution including a water-soluble resin, an organic solvent, and a polyhydroxyanthraquinone derivative.

A dicing method including the steps of: bonding a first wafer having a first wafer resistivity and a second wafer having a second wafer resistivity higher than the wafer first resistivity, thereby forming a bonded wafer; irradiating the bonded wafer with a laser while varying focal lengths in a thickness direction of the bonded wafer, thereby forming a plurality of modified regions along a dicing line; and dicing the bonded wafer along the dicing line by performing an expansion process on the bonded wafer formed with the modified regions.

A laser applying apparatus includes a beam spot shaper for shaping a spot of a laser beam into a slender spot and orienting the polarization direction of a linearly polarized laser beam of the laser beam along a longer side of the slender spot, and a spot control unit for positioning a P-polarized laser beam on slanted surfaces of a recess that is formed in a wafer by orienting the longer side of the slender spot transversely across projected dicing lines and for orienting a shorter side of the slender spot in a processing direction along the projected dicing lines. A method of processing a wafer includes a functional layer removing step that is a step of removing a functional layer on a semiconductor substrate of the wafer by applying laser beams to the projected dicing lines with the use of the laser applying apparatus. The functional layer removing step is carried out a plurality of times to remove the functional layer on the projected dicing lines.

A method of splitting a semiconductor work piece includes: forming a separation zone within the semiconductor work piece, wherein forming the separation zone comprises modifying semiconductor material of the semiconductor work piece at a plurality of targeted positions within the separation zone in at least one physical property which increases thermo-mechanical stress within the separation zone relative to a remainder of the semiconductor work piece, wherein modifying the semiconductor material in one of the targeted positions comprises focusing at least two laser beams to the targeted position; and applying an external force or stress to the semiconductor work piece such that at least one crack propagates along the separation zone and the semiconductor work piece splits into two separate pieces. Additional work piece splitting techniques and techniques for compensating work piece deformation that occurs during the splitting process are also described.

A method for processing a bonded wafer includes forming a plurality of modified layers in a form of rings through positioning focal points of laser beams with a wavelength having transmissibility with respect to a first wafer inside the first wafer, from which a chamfered part and a notch are to be removed, from a back surface of the first wafer and executing irradiation, holding a second wafer side on a chuck table, and grinding the back surface of the first wafer to thin the first wafer. In forming the modified layer, the focal points of the laser beams are set in such a manner as to gradually get closer to a joining layer from an inner side toward an outer side of the first wafer in a radial direction to thereby form the modified layers as to widen toward the lower side.

The present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure that includes a substrate having a circuit region and a seal ring region surrounding the circuit region, and a dicing lane surrounding the seal ring region, wherein the dicing lane includes a first dicing region and a second dicing region disposed on both sides of the first dicing region; first active regions formed in the circuit region; first gate stacks formed on the first active region in the circuit region, the first gate stacks including metal electrodes; second active regions formed in the first dicing region; dielectric structures formed on the second active regions in the first dicing region; and second gate stacks formed on an isolation feature in the second dicing region.

A semiconductor device includes: a substrate including a component area and an edge area at least partially surrounding an outer perimeter of the component area; an upper insulating layer disposed on a first surface of the substrate; a recess formed in the upper insulating layer and extends downward along an outermost perimeter of the substrate in the edge area; and a trench formed in the upper insulating layer between the component area and the recess, and recessed downward beyond the recess, in the edge area.

Described herein are manufacturing techniques and packages that enable wafer-scale heterogenous integration of electronic integrated circuits (EIC) with photonic integrated circuits (PIC) using a reconstitution-based fabrication approach. Wafer-scale photonic devices are formed by assembling strips of known-good dies (KGD). Such strips include arrays of adjacent reticles that have been singulated from a wafer. A strip can include a single row (or column) of reticles singulated from a wafer or multiple rows (or columns) that are adjacent to one another, enabling two-dimensional assembly and increased coverage. Wafer reconstitution involves transferring and bonding one or more strips of KGDs to a target substrate. A KGD is a reticle that is not part of an exclusion zone and has been verified to work properly. Thus, a reconstituted wafer includes strips that have verified to be fully functional.