Disclosed herein is a packaged wafer manufacturing method including the steps of forming a groove along each division line on the front side of a wafer, each groove having a depth greater than the finished thickness of the wafer, next removing a chamfered portion from the outer circumference of the wafer to thereby form a step portion having a depth greater than the depth of each groove, next setting a die of a molding apparatus on the bottom surface of the step portion of the wafer in the condition where a space is defined between the die and the wafer, and next filling a mold resin into this space. Accordingly, the device area of the wafer is covered with the mold resin and each groove of the wafer is filled with the mold resin to thereby obtain a packaged wafer.

A wafer processing method for dividing a wafer into individual device chips along division lines is disclosed. The wafer processing method includes a back grinding step of grinding the back side of the wafer in the condition where a protective tape is attached to the front side of the wafer, thereby reducing the thickness of the wafer to a predetermined thickness, and a reinforcing insulation seal mounting step of mounting a reinforcing insulation seal capable of transmitting infrared light on the back side of the wafer. The wafer processing method further includes a modified layer forming step of applying a laser beam along each division line to thereby form a modified layer inside the wafer along each division line and a wafer dividing step of applying an external force to the wafer to thereby divide the wafer into the individual device chips along each division line.

An apparatus and method to improve the plasma dicing and backmetal cleaving process on substrates through the use of pressurized deionized water (DI) dispense and specialized tooling.

A method for dividing a wafer including: attaching a protective tape to a functional layer of the wafer with the adhesive layer of the tape in contact with the functional layer; and a wafer dividing step. The dividing step includes a cut groove forming step and a laser processing step. The cut groove forming step uses a blade to form a cut groove with a depth that does not reach the functional layer, resulting in part of the substrate being left along each division line. The laser processing step includes applying a laser beam to the part of the substrate left after the cut groove forming step and the functional layer of the wafer to form a laser processed groove having a depth reaching the tape. The tape is closely attached to the functional layer during the tape attaching step to prevent the adhesion of debris to the devices.

A method of processing a wafer having a plurality of intersecting streets on a face side thereof with protrusions on the streets includes a holding step of holding a protective sheet of a wafer unit on a holding table, an upper surface heightwise position detecting step of detecting a heightwise position of an upper surface of a reverse side of the wafer along the streets, and a laser beam applying step of applying a laser beam having a wavelength transmittable through the wafer to the wafer from the reverse side thereof along the streets while positioning a focused point of the laser beam within the wafer on the basis of the heightwise position, to thereby form modified layers in the wafer along the streets.

A substrate stacking apparatus that stacks first and second substrates on each other, by forming a contact region where the first substrate held by a first holding section and the second substrate held by a second holding section contact each other, at one portion of the first and second substrates, and expanding the contact region from the one portion by releasing holding of the first substrate by the first holding section, wherein an amount of deformation occurring in a plurality of directions at least in the first substrate differs when the contact region expands, and the substrate stacking apparatus includes a restricting section that restricts misalignment between the first and second substrates caused by a difference in the amount of deformation. In the substrate stacking apparatus above, the restricting section may restrict the misalignment such that an amount of the misalignment is less than or equal to a prescribed value.

In a wafer processing method, the back side of a wafer is attached to an adhesive tape supported at its peripheral portion by an annular frame having an inside opening. The wafer is set in the inside opening, thereby supporting the wafer through the adhesive tape to the annular frame. The wafer is held on a chuck table with the front side of the wafer facing the upper surface of the chuck table. A laser beam is applied through the adhesive tape and the back side of the wafer in an area corresponding to each division line, thereby forming a plurality of shield tunnels arranged along each division line. Each shield tunnel extends from the front side of the wafer to the back side thereof, each shield tunnel being composed of a fine hole and an amorphous region formed around the fine hole for shielding the fine hole.

A laser processing method which can efficiently perform laser processing while minimizing the deviation of the converging point of a laser beam in end parts of an object to be processed is provided. This laser processing method comprises a preparatory step of holding a lens at an initial position set such that a converging point is located at a predetermined position within the object; a first processing step (S11 and S12) of emitting a first laser beam for processing while holding the lens at the initial position, and moving the lens and the ltd object relative to each other along a main surface so as to form a modified region in one end part of a line to cut; and a second processing step (S13 and S14) of releasing the lens from being held at the initial position after forming the modified region in the one end part of the line to cut, and then moving the lens and the object relative to each other along the main surface while adjusting the gap between the lens and the main surface after the release, so as to form the modified region.

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which performs an imprint process of forming, by using a mold, a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate, including an obtaining unit configured to obtain electric charge information on an amount of first electric charges charged on a first surface of the mold on a side of the substrate by releasing the mold from the cured imprint material on the substrate, a supply unit configured to supply second electric charges having a polarity opposite to that of the first electric charges to an electrode arranged on a second surface of the mold on a side opposite to the first surface, and a control unit configured to control, based on the electric charge information, an amount of the second electric charges supplied from the supply unit to the electrode.

A method of producing microelectronic components includes forming a functional layer system; applying a laminar carrier to the functional layer system; attaching a workpiece to a workpiece carrier; utilizing incident radiation of a laser beam is focused in a boundary region between a growth substrate and the functional layer system, and a bond between the growth substrate and the functional layer system in the boundary region is weakened or destroyed; separating a functional layer stack from the growth substrate, wherein a vacuum gripper having a sealing zone that circumferentially encloses an inner region is applied to the reverse side of the growth substrate, a negative pressure is generated in the inner region such that separation of the functional layer stack from the growth substrate is initiated in the inner region; and the growth substrate held on the vacuum gripper is removed from the functional layer stack.