A laser processing apparatus for processing a wafer along projected dicing lines with a laser beam has a laser oscillator, a polygon mirror having a plurality of reflecting surfaces and rotatable about a central axis thereof, and an fθ lens for focusing the beam reflected by the reflecting surfaces of the polygon mirror and applying the focused beam to the wafer. The reflecting surfaces of the polygon mirror include a zero-gradient reflecting surface lying at a zero gradient parallel to the central axis, a positive-gradient reflecting surface that is inclined at a positive gradient from the zero gradient, and a negative-gradient reflecting surface that is inclined at a negative gradient from the zero gradient. The polygon mirror swings the laser beam in a direction perpendicular to a processing feed direction within the width of each of the projected dicing lines and in the processing feed direction.

A laser beam applying unit of a laser processing apparatus includes a laser oscillator, a condenser adapted to focus the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator and apply the laser beam to a workpiece, and a liquid jetting apparatus disposed at a lower end portion of the condenser and adapted to jet a liquid to an upper surface of the workpiece. The liquid jetting apparatus includes: a transparent plate disposed at the lower end portion of the condenser and permitting transmission therethrough of the laser beam; a casing provided with a space defined by a ceiling wall composed of the transparent plate, side walls, and a bottom wall; an opening formed in the bottom plate, extending in a processing feeding direction, and permitting passage therethrough of the laser beam focused by the condenser; and a liquid supply section adapted to supply the liquid to the casing.

A chuck table includes a main part having a holding surface for holding thereon a workpiece through a dicing tape, and a frame holder disposed around the main part for holding the annular frame. The main part has a flat surface that functions as the holding surface, an outer circumferential suction groove defined in a region of the holding surface that underlies an annular region of the adhesive tape between the workpiece and the frame of the frame unit, for holding the annular region of the adhesive tape under suction, and a suction channel held in fluid communication with the outer circumferential suction groove and a suction source. The frame holder pulls down the frame to a position lower than the holding surface to hold the dicing tape in close contact with the holding surface.

Provided is a substrate bonding apparatus comprising: a first holding unit for holding a first substrate; and a second holding unit for holding a second substrate, wherein the substrate bonding apparatus is configured to bond the first substrate and the second substrate by, after forming a contact region between a part of the first substrate and a part of the second substrate, expanding the contact region to form an initially bonded region and releasing the second substrate having the initially bonded region formed thereon from the second holding unit.

A wafer processing method includes a wafer providing step of providing the wafer by placing either of a polyolefin sheet or a polyester sheet each of which has a size equal to or larger than that of the wafer, on a flat upper surface of a support table and positioning a front surface of the wafer on an upper surface of the sheet, a sheet thermocompression bonding step of evacuating an enclosing environment in which the wafer is provided through the sheet on the support table, heating the sheet, pressing the wafer to pressure-bond the wafer to the sheet, thereby forming a raised portion by which an outer circumference of the wafer is surrounded, a back surface processing step of processing the back surface of the wafer, and a peeling step of peeling off the wafer from the sheet.

A wafer grinding apparatus performs grinding processing for grinding a semiconductor wafer with a grindstone. The grindstone has a wear rate as a characteristic. The wear rate is 5% or more, and less than 200%. A determination part performs determination processing for determining whether a grinding state with respect to the semiconductor wafer is abnormal or normal, based on at least one of a load current of a motor and a grinding wear amount.

According to various embodiments, a support table may include: a baseplate including a support structure, the support structure defining a support region over the baseplate to support at least one of a workpiece or a workpiece carrier therein; and one or more light-emitting components disposed between the baseplate and the support region. The one or more light-emitting components are configured to emit light into the support region.

A package substrate processing method for processing a package substrate having a division line, an electrode being formed on the division line includes a cutting step of cutting the package substrate along the division line by using a cutting blade and a burr removing step of removing burrs produced from the electrode in the cutting step by spraying a fluid to the package substrate along the division line after performing the cutting step. The cutting step includes a step of supplying a cutting liquid containing an organic acid and an oxidizing agent to a cutting area where the package substrate is to be cut by the cutting blade.

A laminate processing method includes a modified layer removing step of positioning a cutting blade to the region of the wafer corresponding to each of the division lines and cutting while supplying cutting water into which a water-soluble resin is mixed from the wafer side of the laminate, thereby removing the modified layer formed inside the wafer, a dividing step of, after the modified layer removing step is carried out, expanding the expandable tape, and dividing the laminate into individual image sensor chips, and a cleaning step of supplying cleaning water from the back surface of the wafer with a state in which the expandable tape is expanded being maintained, thereby cleaning the laminate.

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 applying an ultrasonic wave to the polyester sheet, pushing up each device chip through the polyester sheet, and then picking up each device chip from the polyester sheet.