The method for manufacturing an element chip includes: sticking an adhesive tape having translucency to a front surface of a semiconductor wafer; measuring a position and a width of a second close contact portion in a dividing region; applying a laser beam having a beam diameter smaller than the width of the second close contact portion to the adhesive tape such that the laser beam does not protrude from the second close contact portion based on the width of the second close contact portion and the beam diameter, and forming an exposed portion; exposing the front surface to plasma with a back surface held by a dicing tape, and while protecting an element region from the plasma with an adhesive tape, etching the dividing region exposed in the exposed portion to dice the substrate into a plurality of element chips; and removing the adhesive tape remaining on the front surface.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided, which includes a bonding step bonding a semiconductor substrate having a semiconductor element disposed on a first surface, to a support substrate, at least through an adhesive layer between the semiconductor substrate and the support substrate, and a groove forming step forming a groove in a scribe area of the semiconductor substrate, from a side of a second surface of the semiconductor substrate, the second surface being opposite to the first surface, and in the groove forming step, a conductive layer between the semiconductor substrate and the support substrate is exposed at a bottom of the groove, without the adhesive layer being exposed in the groove.

Provided is a manufacturing process of an element chip, which comprises a preparation step for preparing a substrate including a semiconductor layer having first and second sides and a wiring layer on the first side thereof, the substrate having a plurality of dicing regions and element regions defined by the dicing regions, a scribing step for radiating a laser beam towards the first side of the wiring layer onto the dicing regions to form apertures exposing the semiconductor layer along the dicing regions, and a dicing step for dicing the substrate along the apertures into a plurality of the element chips, wherein the laser beam has a beam profile having a M-shaped distribution whose peripheral intensity is greater than a central intensity in a width direction of the laser beam along the dicing regions.

A cleaning method for cleaning a frame unit including an affixed object, a tape affixed to an undersurface of the affixed object, and an annular frame to which an outer peripheral portion of the tape is affixed, the cleaning method including: an affixed object cleaning step of cleaning the affixed object by jetting a cleaning liquid from a cleaning nozzle while moving the cleaning nozzle in a reciprocating manner along a path extending from above one end of an outer peripheral edge of the affixed object to above another end of the outer peripheral edge of the affixed object; and a frame cleaning step of cleaning the frame by jetting the cleaning liquid from the cleaning nozzle to the frame.

A semiconductor device assembly that includes a first side of a semiconductor device supported on a substrate to permit the processing of a second side of the semiconductor device. A filler material deposited on the semiconductor device supports the semiconductor device on the substrate. The filler material does not adhere to the semiconductor device or the substrate. Alternatively, the filler material may be deposited on the substrate. Instead of a filler material, the substrate may include a topography configured to support the semiconductor device. Adhesive applied between an outer edge of the first side of the semiconductor and the substrate bonds the outer edge of the semiconductor device to the substrate to form a semiconductor device assembly. A second side of the semiconductor device may then be processed and the outer edge of the semiconductor device may be cut off to release the semiconductor device from the assembly.

A processing apparatus includes a holding unit adapted to hold a frame unit, the frame unit including a ring frame formed with four sides at an interval of 90 degrees along an outer circumference of an annular plate having an opening for accommodating a wafer, the wafer being secured to the ring frame through an adhesive tape. The holding unit includes four claw sections. Each of the claw sections includes a tip portion such that the spacing between two opposed claw sections is larger than the distance between the opposed two sides of the ring frame and is smaller than the diameter of an outermost circumference of the ring frame, and a base portion. The base portion is formed with a fixing groove in which to fix the ring frame by rotating the frame unit in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the holding unit.

A method for preparing a semiconductor layer comprises the following steps: providing a mica substrate; depositing a plurality of semiconductor films on the mica substrate to form a semiconductor substrate; and cooling the semiconductor substrate at a cooling rate to separate the plurality of semiconductor films from the mica substrate to obtain a semiconductor layer, wherein the cooling rate ranges from 10? C./min to 50? C./min. Herein, the plurality of semiconductor films comprise a first semiconductor film and a second semiconductor film, the first semiconductor film is formed at a first temperature, the second semiconductor film is formed at a second temperature, the first temperature is lower than the second temperature, and the first semiconductor film is disposed between the mica substrate and the second semiconductor film.

A method includes filling a trench formed in a first integrated circuit carrier with temporary bonding material to form a temporary bonding layer. At least one chip is bonded over the temporary bonding layer.

A surface protective tape, which is used for a method of producing a semiconductor chip including the steps (a) to (d), and contains a substrate film, and a radiation-curable temporary-adhesive layer and a radiation-curable mask material layer provided on the film in this order;

wherein, in the step (b), peeling occurs between the temporary-adhesive layer and the mask material layer before irradiation, and between the mask material layer and the patterned surface described below after irradiation: (a) in the state of having laminated the tape on the side of a patterned surface of a semiconductor wafer, grinding the backing-face of the wafer; laminating a wafer fixing tape on the backing-face side of the ground wafer; and supporting and fixing the wafer to a ring flame; (b) after integrally peeling both the film and the temporary-adhesive layer from the tape thereby to expose the mask material layer on top, forming an opening by cutting a portion of the mask material layer corresponding to a street of the wafer with a laser; (c) a plasma-dicing step of segmentalizing the wafer on the street by a SF.sub.6 plasma, and thereby for singulating the wafer into semiconductor chips; and (d) an ashing step of removing the mask material layer by an O.sub.2 plasma.

Some embodiments relate to a processing tool for processing a singulated semiconductor die. The tool includes an evaluation unit, a drying unit, and a die wipe station. The evaluation unit is configured to subject the singulated semiconductor die to a liquid to detect flaws in the singulated semiconductor die. The drying unit is configured to dry the liquid from a frontside of the singulated semiconductor die. The die wipe station includes an absorptive drying structure configured to absorb the liquid from a backside of the singulated semiconductor die after the drying unit has dried the liquid from the frontside of the singulated semiconductor die.