There is provided a chuck table for holding a workpiece under suction. The chuck table includes a base table having a suction path to be connected to a suction source, a support member that is mounted on the base table and supports the workpiece, and a protective plate disposed so as to cover an upper surface of the support member and to protect the support member. The protective plate has a plurality of through-holes that transmits a suction force from the suction source to the workpiece.

There is provided a processing apparatus including a holding table having a holding surface for holding thereon a workpiece with a plurality of devices formed in respective areas demarcated on a face side of the workpiece by a plurality of projected dicing lines, a processing unit that processes the workpiece held on the holding table, an image capturing unit that captures an image of the workpiece held on the holding table, a moving unit that moves the holding table relatively to the processing unit and the image capturing unit in horizontal directions along the holding surface, a touch panel that displays thereon the image captured by the image capturing unit, and a control unit. The control unit detects a line in an image positioned within an allowable region based on a contact line traced on the image displayed on the touch panel and registers the detected line.

A wafer manufacturing method includes a wafer preparing step of preparing a wafer including a semiconductor device formed in each of a plurality of regions demarcated by a plurality of streets intersecting each other, a removing step of removing, from the wafer, a defective device region including a semiconductor device determined to be a defective product among a plurality of the semiconductor devices formed in the wafer, and a fitting step of fitting, into a removed region formed by removing the defective device region from the wafer, a device chip including a semiconductor device as a non-defective product having same functions as those of the semiconductor device determined to be a defective product and having a size capable of being fitted into the removed region.

A wafer manufacturing method includes a wafer preparing step of preparing a wafer including a semiconductor device formed in each of a plurality of regions demarcated by a plurality of streets intersecting each other, a support substrate fixing step of fixing the wafer to a support substrate, a removing step of removing, from the wafer, a defective device region including a semiconductor device determined to be a defective product among a plurality of the semiconductor devices formed in the wafer, and a fitting step of fitting, into a removed region formed by removing the defective device region from the wafer, a device chip including a semiconductor device as a non-defective product having same functions as those of the semiconductor device determined to be a defective product and having a size capable of being fitted into the removed region, and fixing the device chip to the support substrate.

A wafer manufacturing method includes a wafer preparing step of preparing a wafer including a semiconductor device formed in each of a plurality of regions demarcated by a plurality of streets intersecting each other, a removing step of removing, from the wafer, a defective device region including a semiconductor device determined to be a defective product among a plurality of the semiconductor devices formed in the wafer, and a fitting step of fitting, into a removed region formed by removing the defective device region from the wafer, a device chip including a semiconductor device as a non-defective product having same functions as those of the semiconductor device determined to be a defective product and having a size capable of being fitted into the removed region.

A branching element configured to branch a second laser light into a plurality of beams of branch light along a machining feed direction, and a second condenser lens configured to focus the plurality of beams of branch light branched by a branching element onto a street to be machined are provided, and a time period τ is expressed as τ=L/V, where L is a branch distance, which corresponds to spacing between adjacent leading and trailing spots for each of branch lights focused on the street by the second condenser lens, V is a machining speed, which corresponds to a speed of relative movement, and τ is the time period taken until the trailing spot overlaps a machining position of the leading spot, and τ>τ1 is satisfied, where τ1 is a threshold value of the time period when deterioration of the machining quality of the second groove occurs.

A wafer transfer method for forming a second work unit by transferring a wafer of a first work unit including a first ring frame, a first adhesive tape, and the wafer to a second adhesive tape includes sandwiching a claw body between the first ring frame and a second ring frame, affixing the second adhesive tape to a surface of the wafer which surface is not affixed to the first adhesive tape, holding the wafer by the second ring frame via the second adhesive tape, and peeling off the first adhesive tape from the wafer.

A conveyance apparatus connected to a substrate processing apparatus configured to bring a pressing member and a material on a substrate into contact with each other to form a cured film of the material on the substrate, the conveyance apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire a state of a peripheral portion of an adhesion substrate including the pressing member and the substrate adhering to the pressing member with the material interposed in between, a position adjusting unit configured to adjust a position of the adhesion substrate based on a result acquired by the acquisition unit, and a conveyance unit configured to convey the adhesion substrate adjusted by the position adjusting unit.

An element chip smoothing method including: an element chip preparation step of preparing at least one element chip including a first surface covered with a resin film, a second surface opposite the first surface, and a sidewall connecting the first surface to the second surface and having ruggedness; a sidewall cleaning step of exposing the element chip to a first plasma, to remove deposits adhering to the sidewall, with the resin film allowed to continue to exist; a sidewall oxidation step of exposing the element chip to a second plasma, after the sidewall cleaning step, to oxidize a surface of the sidewall, with the resin film allowed to continue to exist; and a sidewall etching step of exposing the element chip to a third plasma, after the sidewall oxidation step, to etch the sidewall, with the resin film allowed to continue to exist.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a holder having thereon an attraction surface configured to attract a substrate and including, as multiple regions in which attracting pressures for attracting the substrate are controlled independently, a first region having a circular shape and a second region having an annular shape and disposed at an outside of the first region in a diametrical direction; multiple attracting pressure generators configured to independently generate the attracting pressures respectively in the multiple regions forming the attraction surface; multiple attracting pressure adjusters configured to independently adjust the attracting pressures respectively generated by the attracting pressure generators; and a controller configured to control the multiple attracting pressure generators and the multiple attracting pressure adjusters. The controller generates different attracting pressures in at least a part of the first region and in at least a part of the second region.