A device, a system and a method for bonding two substrates. A first substrate holder has a recess and an elevation.

Provided are a substrate chuck and a substrate bonding system including the substrate chuck. The substrate bonding system includes a lower substrate chuck and an upper substrate chuck disposed on the lower substrate chuck. The lower substrate chuck has a non-flat lower substrate contact surface, and the upper substrate chuck has a flat upper substrate contact surface.

A chip bonding apparatus and method are disclosed. The chip bonding apparatus includes: at least one separation module for separating chips; at least one bonding module for bonding the chips a substrate; a transportation device for transporting the chips between the separation module and the bonding module, the transportation device including one or more guide tracks and one or more transportation carriers for retaining the chips, each of the guide tracks is provided thereon with at least one of the transportation carriers; and a control device for individually controlling the separation module, the bonding module and the transportation device. The chip bonding apparatus and method allows pickup, transportation and chip-to-substrate bonding of chips in batches with increased chip bonding yield and improved chip bonding accuracy.

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a placement part whereon a substrate container is placed; a substrate retainer supporting the substrate; transfer mechanisms configured to transfer the substrate between the substrate container and the substrate retainer and to perform a transfer operation; a detector provided at one or more of the transfer mechanisms to detect vibration; a memory device that registers, in advance, natural frequencies of the substrate and one or more of the transfer mechanisms and threshold values of the substrate and the plurality of transfer mechanisms; and a monitoring part to monitor whether an intensity of the vibration, based on transformed data obtained by transforming detection data, exceeds at least one of the threshold values of the substrate and the plurality of transfer mechanisms and whether a vibration frequency is equal to at least one of the natural frequencies of the substrate and the plurality of transfer mechanisms.

An apparatus configured to calibrate a wafer bonding apparatus includes a stage, a linear moving pin, a detector, and a data processing unit. The stage is configured to hold a wafer thereon, and the wafer includes a predetermined mark thereon. The linear moving pin is configured to push the wafer away from the stage. The detector is configured to detect a position of the predetermined mark when the linear moving pin applies a force to the wafer. The data processing unit receives information on the position of the predetermined mark from the detector and information on a corresponding force applied to the wafer by the linear moving pin, where the data processing unit is configured to compare the information with calibration information.

A cutting apparatus includes: a processing feeding unit that performs processing feeding of a chuck table adapted to hold a workpiece; and two cutting units in which rotational axes of two spindles coincide with each other and cutting blades mounted to the spindles face each other. Each cutting unit includes a flange mechanism in which the cutting blade having a cutting edge fixed to an outer peripheral edge of a one-side outer surface of a circular disk-shaped base is fixed to the spindle. The flange mechanism is fixed to a tip of the spindle, sucks an other-side outer surface of the base of the cutting blade, and fixes the cutting blade to the spindle with the one-side outer surface of the base exposed to the side of the tip of the spindle, and the one-side outer surfaces of the cutting blades fixed to the two cutting units.

A semiconductor wafer dicing process is disclosed for dicing a wafer into individual dies, each die comprising one integrated circuit. The process comprises: disposing a coating upon the wafer; removing at least a portion of the coating to expose regions of the wafer, along which the wafer is to be diced, to form a workpiece; disposing the workpiece upon a platen within a processing chamber; plasma treating the workpiece with a set of plasma treatment conditions to etch a portion of the exposed regions of the wafer to form a wafer groove which extends laterally beneath the coating to form an undercut; and plasma etching the workpiece with a set of plasma etch conditions, which are different to the plasma treatment conditions, to etch through the wafer and dice the wafer along the wafer groove.

A semiconductor wafer dicing process is disclosed for dicing a wafer into individual dies. Scribe lines are formed within a polymer coating to expose regions of wafer to form a pre-processed product. The pre-processed product within the chamber is plasma etched to remove the exposed regions of the wafer to separate the individual dies and form a processed product. A frame cover is then removed and the processed product, wafer frame and adhesive tape are exposed to an oxygen plasma within the chamber to partially remove an outermost region of the polymer coating, which is most heavily contaminated with fluorine, to leave a residual polymer coating on the individual dies and form a post-processed product. The residual polymer coating on the individual dies of the post-processed product is then removed.

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 cooling the polyester sheet, pushing up each device chip through the polyester sheet, and then picking up each device chip from the polyester sheet.

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 blowing out air to push up each device chip and picking up each device chip from the polyolefin sheet.