A method of planarizing a substrate comprises dispensing formable material onto a substrate, contacting, at a planarizing station at a first location, a superstrate held by a superstrate chuck with the formable material on the substrate, thereby forming a multilayer structure including the superstrate, a film of the formable material, and the substrate, releasing the superstrate from the superstrate chuck, moving the multilayer structure from the first location to a curing station located at a second location away from the first location, the curing station including an array of light-emitting diodes, and curing the film of the multilayer structure by exposing the film to light emitted from the array of light-emitting diodes.

A workpiece processing method is provided for processing a workpiece including a device region, a peripheral surplus region surrounding the device region, and key patterns being arranged on a top surface side in the peripheral surplus region so as to correspond to a plurality of planned dividing lines, the method including: a resin sheet sticking step of sticking a resin sheet to the top surface side of the workpiece, and transferring the key patterns onto the resin sheet; a peripheral surplus region removing step of dividing the peripheral surplus region from the workpiece, and peeling off the peripheral surplus region from the resin sheet; and a device region processing step of identifying a position of at least one planned dividing line by using, as marks, traces of the key patterns exposed in the peripheral surplus region removing step, and processing the device region along the plurality of planned dividing lines.

Implementations of a method for aligning a semiconductor wafer for singulation may include: providing a semiconductor wafer having a first side and a second side. The first side of the wafer may include a plurality of die and the plurality of die may be separated by streets. The semiconductor wafer may include an edge ring around a perimeter of the wafer on the second side of the wafer. The wafer may also include a metal layer on the second side of the wafer. The metal layer may substantially cover the edge ring. The method may include grinding the edge ring to create an edge exclusion area and aligning the semiconductor wafer with a saw using a camera positioned in the edge exclusion area on the second side of the wafer. Aligning the wafer may include using three or more alignment features included in the edge exclusion area.

A transfer device, configured to hold a substrate to be thinned and configured to be moved along a transfer path through which the substrate is transferred, includes a grip member configured to hold a frame to which the substrate is mounted with a tape therebetween; a guide member configured to be moved along the transfer path together with the grip member and configured to place thereon the frame held by the grip member; and a moving mechanism configured to move the grip member with respect to the guide member to move the frame held by the grip member along the guide member.

A method of detecting a polishing endpoint includes storing a plurality of library spectra, measuring a sequence of spectra from the substrate in-situ during polishing, and for each measured spectrum of the sequence of spectra, finding a best matching library spectrum from the plurality of library spectra to generate a sequence of best matching library spectra. Each library spectrum has a stored associated value representing a degree of progress through a polishing process, and the stored associated value for the best matching library spectrum is determined for each best matching library spectrum to generate a sequence of values representing a progression of polishing of the substrate. The sequence of values is compared to a target value, and a polishing endpoint is triggered when the sequence of values reaches the target value.

The present invention discloses a bonding cavity structure and a bonding method, the bonding cavity structure comprises an upper carrier and a lower carrier, a gas-flow forming mechanism, which comprises multiple open-close integrated arms, the integrated arms are provided with multiple nozzles facing to wafer bonding surfaces, and the nozzles are switched to gas nozzles or vacuum suction nozzles, a closed space is formed by all the integrated arms closed together with the carriers, all the nozzle located on a side of two wafers are set as the gas nozzles, which blow gas parallel to the wafer bonding surfaces, meanwhile, all the nozzles located on the other side of the two wafers are set as the vacuum suction nozzles, which suck the gas blown from the gas nozzle at corresponding position, a high-speed gas-flow is generated between the two wafers, so as to produce a low pressure of Bernoulli effect, the wafers are not only subjected to thrust forces from backsides, but tension forces between the bonding surfaces are also affected by uniform low pressure, which enhances force uniformity during bonding process, and reduces an impact of particles on the bonding surfaces in the closed space .

A workpiece-separating device includes a holding member configured to detachably hold one of a workpiece or a supporting body of a laminated body and a light irradiation part configured to perform light irradiation on a separating layer, the holding member including: a stage facing one of the workpiece or the supporting body, a fixed supporting part projecting from the stage toward the laminated body and including a still suction pad immovable in a projection direction, and a movable supporting part projecting from the stage toward the laminated body and including a response suction pad that is movable in a projection direction and elastically deformable, a plurality of the fixed supporting parts and a plurality of the movable supporting parts disposed in a dispersed manner, and the plurality of response suction pads project toward the laminated body further than the plurality of still suction pads.

An as-sliced wafer processing method includes a grinding step of grinding a first surface of an as-sliced wafer, an outer periphery positioning step of moving a chuck table and a grinding unit relative to each other in directions parallel to a holding surface of the chuck table so as to position an edge on an outer periphery of grinding stones at an outer peripheral edge of the first surface after the grinding step is carried out, and a chamfering step of chamfering an outer periphery of the first surface of the as-sliced wafer by the grinding stones after the outer periphery positioning step is carried out.

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 or a front 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 applying a laser beam to the wafer to form modified layers in the wafer, thereby dividing the wafer into individual device chips, and a pickup step of applying an ultrasonic wave to the polyolefin sheet in each of the plurality of separate regions corresponding to each device chip, pushing up each device chip through the polyolefin sheet, then picking up each device chip from the polyolefin sheet.

According to one embodiment, there is provided a substrate bonding apparatus including a first suction stage, a second suction stage, and a pressing member. The first suction stage sucks a first substrate. The second suction stage is arranged so as to face the first substrate. The second suction stage sucks the second substrate. The pressing member is capable of deforming the first substrate sucked on the first suction stage so as to be convex toward the second suction stage side. The pressing member has a marking structure on a distal end side.