Systems and methods are provided for monitoring wafer bonding and for detecting or determining defects in a wafer bond formed between two semiconductor wafers. A wafer bonding system includes a camera configured to monitor bonding between two semiconductor wafers. Wafer bonding defect detection circuitry receives video data from the camera, and detects a bonding defect based on the received video data.

A wafer bonding apparatus is provided includes a lower support plate configured to structurally support a first wafer on an upper surface of the lower support plate; a lower structure adjacent to the lower support plate and movable in a vertical direction that is perpendicular to the upper surface of the lower support plate, an upper support plate configured to structurally support a second wafer on a lower surface of the lower support plate, and an upper structure adjacent to the upper support plate and movable in the vertical direction.

An optical axis adjusting method includes a position detecting step of emitting a laser beam from a laser oscillator, applying the laser beam to a processing point, and detecting the position of the laser beam by using a position detecting unit set at the processing point, a storing step of storing the position of the laser beam as detected in the position detecting step as a reference position, and an adjusting step of operating an adjusting mechanism of each optical component holder in the case that the position of the laser beam is deviated from the reference position after performing maintenance of each optical component, thereby adjusting the position of the laser beam so that the position of the laser beam is shifted back to the reference position.

An assembly for monitoring a semiconductor device under test comprising a mill configured to mill the device, a sensor configured to measure an electrical characteristic of the device, and a computer configured to determine the amount of strain in the device from the electrical characteristic when the mill is milling the device and detect an endpoint of milling at a circuit within the device. In use the endpoints of the milling process of the semiconductor device are detected measuring an electrical characteristic of the device with a sensor during milling determining the amount of strain in the device from the electrical characteristic and detecting an endpoint of the milling process within the device based on the amount of strain.

A substrate bonding apparatus for bonding a first substrate to a second substrate includes: a first bonding chuck including: a first base; a first deformable plate provided on the first base to support the first substrate; and a first pneumatic adjustor configured to deform the first deformable plate by adjusting a first pressure in a first cavity formed between the first deformable plate and the first base; and a second bonding chuck including: a second base; a second deformable plate provided on the second base to support the second substrate; and a second pneumatic adjustor configured to deform the second deformable plate by adjusting a second pressure in a second cavity formed between the second deformable plate and the second base. The first deformable plate is deformed such that a first distance between the first base and the first deformable plate is varied based on the first pressure, and the second deformable plate is deformed such that a second distance between the second base the second deformable plate is varied based on the second pressure.

An apparatus includes an alignment module configured to align a first wafer and a second wafer based on alignment markers on the first wafer and corresponding alignment markers on the second wafer. The apparatus further includes a flag placement module configured to insert a plurality of flags between the first wafer and the second wafer, a flag-out mechanism configured to simultaneously move the plurality of flags to a flag-out position, and a controller configured to determine whether the wafers remain aligned within an alignment tolerance based on an amount of time for each flag of the plurality of flags to reach the flag-out position.

A chuck table correction method includes the step of: positioning a lower end of a cutting blade, relative to a chuck table, at a predetermined height for cutting into a holding surface; and relatively moving the chuck table and a cutting unit in a processing feeding direction, to cut the holding surface side of the chuck table, thereby forming the chuck table with a corrected surface that functions as a new holding surface.

A bonding system includes a surface modifying apparatus, a surface hydrophilizing apparatus and a bonding apparatus. The surface modifying apparatus is configured to modify a bonding surface of a first substrate and a bonding surface of a second substrate with plasma. The surface hydrophilizing apparatus is configured to hydrophilize the modified bonding surfaces of the first substrate and the second substrate. The bonding apparatus includes a condensation suppressing gas discharge unit, and is configured to bond the hydrophilized bonding surfaces of the first substrate and the second substrate by an intermolecular force. The condensation suppressing gas discharge unit is configured to discharge a condensation suppressing gas toward a space between a peripheral portion of the bonding surface of the first substrate and a peripheral portion of the bonding surface of the second substrate facing each other.

A wafer processing method includes a polyolefin sheet providing step of positioning a wafer in an inside opening of a ring frame and providing a polyolefin sheet on a back side of the wafer and on a back side of the ring frame, a uniting step of heating the polyolefin sheet as applying a pressure to the polyolefin sheet to thereby unite the wafer and the ring frame through the polyolefin 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 picking up each device chip from the polyolefin sheet.

A cutting blade supplying apparatus includes a cutting blade stocker that stocks a plurality of cutting blades, a carrying unit that carries out the cutting blade from the cutting blade stocker and carries the cutting blade to a cutting apparatus, a transferring unit that transfers the cutting blade carried by the carrying unit to a blade replacing unit of the cutting apparatus, and a control unit. The control unit selects the cutting blade needed by the cutting apparatus and causes the cutting blade to be carried by the carrying unit to the cutting apparatus.