A processing method of a workpiece used when the workpiece is processed is provided. The processing method of a workpiece includes a disposing step of disposing the workpiece in a gas containing a substance that generates an active species that reacts with the workpiece, a measurement step of measuring the distribution of the thickness of the workpiece disposed in the gas, and a laser beam irradiation step of irradiating the workpiece in the gas with a laser beam of which the power is adjusted based on the distribution of the thickness measured in the measurement step. In the laser beam irradiation step, the removal amount by which a region irradiated with the laser beam in the workpiece is removed by the active species is controlled by irradiating the workpiece with the laser beam of which the power is adjusted.

Provided is a method for machining a workpiece including a substrate that has front and back surfaces and a ductile material layer that contains a ductile material and is disposed on the front or back surface. The method includes a tape bonding step of bonding a tape on a side of the substrate of the workpiece, a holding step of holding the workpiece by a holding table via the tape, and a cutting step of relatively moving the holding table and a cutting blade to cause the cutting blade to cut into the ductile material layer and the substrate. In the cutting step, the cutting blade is rotated such that a portion of the cutting blade, the portion being located on a forward side in a moving direction of the cutting blade relative to the holding table, cuts into the workpiece from the ductile material layer toward the substrate.

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

Apparatus for forming a protective member on a wafer includes a stage for mounting a sheet, the stage having a frame and a chuck table supported to and surrounded by the frame, the frame having a plurality of air supply holes opening to the upper surface of the frame. A holding unit is adapted to be moved to a position opposed to the stage for holding the wafer, and a resin supply unit supplies a liquid resin to the upper surface of the sheet placed on the stage. The liquid resin is formed into the protective member. A sheet pressing pad vertically movably supported so as to be opposed to the sheet is placed on the stage. The sheet pressing pad comes into contact with a part of the sheet placed on the stage in an area inside the air supply holes, thereby pressing the sheet.

A method of processing a wafer includes a protective member affixing step of affixing a protective member whose area covers a face side or a reverse side of the wafer to the wafer, and after the protective member affixing step has been carried out, a ring-shaped stiffener removing step of removing a ring-shaped stiffener from the wafer. The ring-shaped stiffener removing step includes a ring-shaped stiffener separating step of dividing the wafer along an outer circumference of a device region to separate the device region and the ring-shaped stiffener from each other, and after the ring-shaped stiffener separating step has been carried out, a removing step of processing the ring-shaped stiffener with a grindstone to remove the ring-shaped stiffener from the wafer while a processing fluid is being supplied to the wafer.

A laser processing machine includes a condenser and a water pillar forming unit. The condenser condenses a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator and irradiates it to a workpiece held on a chuck table. The water pillar forming unit is disposed on a lower end of the condenser and is configured to form a thread-shaped water pillar on a front side of the workpiece. The laser oscillator includes a first laser oscillator, which emits a first laser beam having a short pulse width, and a second laser oscillator, which emits a second laser beam having a long pulse width. After the laser beams emitted from the first and second laser oscillators have transmitted through the thread-shaped water pillar formed by the water pillar forming unit and have been irradiated to the workpiece, a plasma occurred in the water pillar forming unit applies processing to the workpiece.

A method for cleaning semiconductor substrate without damaging patterned structure on the substrate using ultra/mega sonic device comprising applying liquid into a space between a substrate and an ultra/mega sonic device; setting an ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.1 and power P.sub.1 to drive said ultra/mega sonic device; before bubble cavitation in said liquid damaging patterned structure on the substrate, setting said ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.2 and power P.sub.2 to drive said ultra/mega sonic device; after temperature inside bubble cooling down to a set temperature, setting said ultra/mega sonic power supply at frequency f.sub.1 and power P.sub.1 again; repeating above steps till the substrate being cleaned. Normally, if f.sub.1=f.sub.2, then P.sub.2 is equal to zero or much less than P.sub.1; if P.sub.1=P.sub.2, then f.sub.2 is higher than f.sub.1; if the f.sub.1<f.sub.2, then, P.sub.2 can be either equal or less than P.sub.1.

A wafer processing method for processing a wafer formed on a front surface thereof with a plurality of devices having projection-shaped electrodes, the devices being partitioned by streets, includes a cutting step of holding a back surface of the wafer by a holding surface of a chuck table and cutting head portions of the projection-shaped electrodes by a cutting tool slewed in parallel to the holding surface, to make uniform the electrodes in height and expose metallic surfaces; a thermocompression bonding sheet laying step of laying a thermocompression bonding sheet on the front surface of the wafer; a thermocompression bonding step of heating and pressing the thermocompression bonding sheet to perform thermocompression bonding; and a peeling step of peeling off the thermocompression bonding sheet from the wafer, before dividing the wafer into individual device chips and bonding the electrodes to a circuit board.

A substrate bonding apparatus for bonding a first substrate to a second substrate includes a first bonding chuck configured to fix the first substrate to a first surface of the first bonding chuck; a second bonding chuck configured to fix the second substrate to a second surface of the second bonding chuck, the second surface facing the first surface; a process gas injector surrounding at least one selected from the first bonding chuck and the second bonding chuck in a plan view, the process gas injector configured to inject a process gas between the first substrate and the second substrate when respectively disposed on the first bonding chuck and the second bonding chuck; and an air curtain generator disposed at an outside of the process gas injector in the plan view, the air curtain generator configured to inject an air curtain forming gas to form an air curtain surrounding the first substrate and the second substrate.

A wafer bonding apparatus includes a lower stage having a first surface and holding a first wafer on the first surface, an upper stage having a second surface and holding a second wafer on the second surface, an upper push rod passing through a center hole of the upper stage to press a middle region of the second wafer, and a plurality of first heating circuits provided at the second surface of the upper stage to heat the second wafer held by the upper stage. Each of the plurality of first heating circuits is independently controlled such that the second wafer is heated to have different temperature distributions along a circumferential direction about a center of the second wafer.