A protective film forming agent for dicing of semiconductor wafers for forming a protective film on the surface of the semiconductor wafers and capable of forming a protective film of high absorbance index, and a production method of semiconductor chips using the protective film forming agent. In a protective film forming agent containing a water-soluble resin, light absorber and solvent, a compound having a specific structure is used as the light absorber. The content of the light absorber in the protective film forming agent is 0.1% by mass or more and 10% by mass or less.

A laser processing apparatus includes an unloading/loading mechanism for unloading a wafer from and loading a wafer into a cassette placed on a cassette placing stand, a chuck table for rotatably holding the wafer unloaded from the cassette by the unloading/loading mechanism, an image capturing unit for capturing an image of a wafer, and a control unit. The control unit controls the unloading/loading mechanism to orient a mark indicating the crystal orientation of a processed wafer in a predetermined direction different from a direction in which the mark of an unprocessed wafer in the cassette is oriented, when the unloading/loading mechanism houses the processed wafer into the cassette.

Methods of dicing semiconductor wafers, each wafer having a plurality of integrated circuits, are described. A method includes forming a mask above the semiconductor wafer, the mask including a layer covering and protecting the integrated circuits. The mask and a portion of the semiconductor wafer are patterned with a laser scribing process to provide a patterned mask and to form trenches partially into but not through the semiconductor wafer between the integrated circuits. Each of the trenches has a width. The semiconductor wafer is plasma etched through the trenches to form corresponding trench extensions and to singulate the integrated circuits. Each of the corresponding trench extensions has the width.

A method for cleaning semiconductor substrate without damaging patterned structure on the substrate using ultra/mega sonic device comprising applying liquid into a space between a substrate and an ultra/mega sonic device; setting an ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.1 and power P.sub.1 to drive said ultra/mega sonic device; before bubble cavitation in said liquid damaging patterned structure on the substrate, setting said ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.2 and power P.sub.2 to drive said ultra/mega sonic device; after temperature inside bubble cooling down to a set temperature, setting said ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.1 and power P.sub.1 again; repeating above steps till the substrate being cleaned. Normally, if f.sub.1=f.sub.2, then P.sub.2 is equal to zero or much less than P.sub.1; if P.sub.1=P.sub.2, then f.sub.2 is higher than f.sub.1; if the f.sub.1<f.sub.2, then, P.sub.2 can be either equal or less than P.sub.1.

Cleave systems for separating bonded wafer structures, mountable cleave monitoring systems and methods for separating bonded wafer structures are disclosed. In some embodiments, the sound emitted from a bonded wafer structure is sensed during cleaving and a metric related to an attribute of the cleave is generated. The generated metric may be used for quality control and/or to adjust a cleave control parameter to improve the quality of the cleave of subsequently cleaved bonded wafer structures.

A wafer processing method includes a polyester sheet providing step of positioning a wafer in an inside opening of a ring frame and providing a polyester sheet on a back side of the wafer and on a back side of the ring frame, a uniting step of heating the polyester sheet as applying a pressure to the polyester sheet to thereby unite the wafer and the ring frame through the polyester sheet by thermocompression bonding, a dividing step of cutting the wafer by using a cutting apparatus to thereby divide the wafer into individual device chips, and a pickup step of heating the polyester sheet, pushing up each device chip through the polyester sheet, and then picking up each device chip from the polyester sheet.

A wafer producing apparatus includes: an ingot grinding unit configured to grind and planarize an upper surface of an ingot held by a first holding table; a laser applying unit configured to apply a laser beam of such a wavelength as to be transmitted through the ingot to the ingot, with a focal point of the laser beam positioned at a depth corresponding to the thickness of a wafer to be produced from an upper surface of the ingot held by a second holding table, to form a peel-off layer; a wafer peeling unit configured to hold the upper surface of the ingot held by a third holding table and peel off the wafer from the peel-off layer; and a carrying tray having an ingot support section configured to support the ingot and a wafer support section configured to support the wafer.

A wafer bonding apparatus including: a lower chuck to which a lower wafer is secured at a peripheral portion of the lower chuck; an upper chuck to which an upper wafer is secured; a bonding initiator for pressuring a central portion of the upper wafer until the central portion of the upper wafer reaches a central portion of the lower wafer, thereby initiating a bonding process of the upper and the lower wafers by deforming the upper wafer; and a bonding controller for controlling a bonding speed between a peripheral portion of the upper wafer and a peripheral portion of the lower wafer such that the upper wafer becomes un-deformed prior to bonding the peripheral portion of the upper wafer and the peripheral portion of the lower wafer.

Methods and apparatus for cleaving a substrate in a semiconductor chamber. The semiconductor chamber pressure is adjusted to a process pressure, a substrate is then heated to a nucleation temperature of ions implanted in the substrate, the temperature of the substrate is then adjusted below the nucleation temperature of the ions, and the temperature is maintained until cleaving of the substrate occurs. Microwaves may be used to provide heating of the substrate for the processes. A cleaving sensor may be used for detection of successful cleaving by detecting pressure changes, acoustic emissions, changes within the substrate, and/or residual gases given off by the implanted ions when the cleaving occurs.

A method and apparatus for depositing a carbon compound on a substrate includes using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) chamber with a chamber body, a lid, an interior volume, a pumping apparatus, and a gas delivery system and a pedestal for supporting a substrate disposed within the interior volume of the ICP chamber, the pedestal has an upper portion formed from aluminum nitride with an upper surface that is configured to support and heat a substrate with embedded heating elements and a lower portion with a tube-like structure formed from aluminum nitride that is configured to support the upper portion and house electrodes for supplying power to the embedded heating elements of the upper portion, and the pedestal is configured to heat the substrate during deposition of a carbon compound film.