There is provided a method of processing a wafer having devices formed in respective areas on a face side thereof that are demarcated by a plurality of crossing projected dicing lines on the face side. The method of processing a wafer includes a wafer unit forming step of forming a wafer unit having a wafer, a tape, and an annular frame, a dividing step of dividing the wafer along the projected dicing lines into a plurality of device chips, a pick-up step of picking up one at a time of the device chips from the wafer unit, and a measuring step of measuring the device chip picked up in the pick-up step. The method also includes a distinguishing step, before the pick-up step, of inspecting properties of the devices to distinguish acceptable devices and defective devices among the devices and storing distinguished results.

A resin coating applying apparatus includes a housing, a lid, a lid actuator for actuating the lid openably and closably with respect to the housing, a resin supply for supplying a solid resin to a workpiece, a vacuum pump for evacuating a processing space hermetically sealed by the housing and the lid, and an atmospheric vent valve for introducing atmospheric air into the processing space to cool the resin applied to the workpiece. The housing includes a holding table and a holding table actuator for moving the holding table upwardly and downwardly. The lid includes an upper table disposed opposite the holding table and movable relatively closely to the holding table to spread the resin supplied to the workpiece and coat the workpiece with the resin. When the lid is closed, it covers the opening in the housing to create the hermetically sealed processing space.

A processing apparatus includes: a holding unit that holds a workpiece; a processing mechanism that processes the workpiece held by the holding unit; a processing liquid supplying mechanism that supplies a processing liquid containing an oxidizing agent to at least the workpiece held by the holding unit at the time of processing the workpiece by the processing means; a processing waste liquid recovery section that recovers a processing waste liquid containing the processing liquid supplied from the processing liquid supplying mechanism to the workpiece; a discharge passage through which the processing waste liquid is discharged from the processing waste liquid recovery section to the outside of the processing apparatus; and a waste liquid treatment mechanism that is disposed in the discharge passage and that decomposes the processing liquid contained in the processing waste liquid while the processing waste liquid flows through the discharge passage.

An arrangement includes a panel configured as a pre-form for manufacturing a plurality of component carriers; a protection layer covering a surface portion of a main surface of the panel, wherein the protection layer is detachable from the surface portion without leaving residues on the panel. A handling tool for handling the panel includes a surface onto which the panel is arrangeable. The panel includes a handling surface, with which the panel is arrangeable onto the handling tool, wherein the handling surface comprises at least part of the surface portion covered by the protection layer.

A method of processing a wafer includes a cutting step of cutting the face side of the wafer with a cutting blade to form grooves therein along projected dicing lines, a first inspecting step of capturing an image of the grooves formed in the cutting step and inspecting a state of a chip in the captured image of the grooves, a protecting member sticking step of sticking a protective member to the face side of the wafer, a grinding step of holding the protective member side of the wafer on a chuck table and grinding a reverse side of the wafer to thin the wafer to a finished thickness, thereby dividing the wafer into device chips, a second inspecting step of capturing an image of the grooves exposed on the reverse side of the wafer and inspecting a state of a chip in the captured image of the grooves.

A laser beam irradiating unit of a laser processing apparatus includes a laser oscillator, a mirror configured to reflect a laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator and propagate the laser beam to a processing point, a power measuring unit configured to measure power of leakage light of the laser beam transmitted without being reflected by the mirror, and a condensing lens configured to condense the laser beam propagated by the mirror and irradiate a workpiece with the condensed laser beam. The control unit measures the power of the leakage light of the laser beam by the power measuring unit while irradiating the workpiece with the laser beam.

A protective member forming apparatus for forming a protective member on the top surface of a substrate by laminating a liquid resin and a cover sheet on a resin film includes: a liquid resin supply unit configured to supply the liquid resin onto the resin film; a pressing unit including a pressing surface, the pressing unit being configured to spread the liquid resin over the resin film by pressing the liquid resin by the pressing surface via the cover sheet; and a determining unit configured to determine the state of the spread liquid resin. The determining unit includes a determining section configured to determine whether or not the liquid resin is spread over a predetermined range with respect to the substrate.

According to one embodiment, a processing information management system includes: an abnormality analyzer configured to generate abnormality occurrence data of a target wafer based on processing location information, the processing location information collected based on a first sensor outputting a first sensor signal according to a detected processing state, the first sensor provided in a wafer processing apparatus; and an integration system configured to integrate the abnormality occurrence data into wafer map data corresponding to the target wafer.

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 or a front 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 applying a laser beam to the wafer to form shield tunnels in the wafer, thereby dividing the wafer into individual device chips, and a pickup step of picking up each device chip from the polyester sheet.

An edge trimming apparatus includes a chuck table that causes a ring-shaped groove with an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of a wafer to communicate with a suction source to hold under suction a lower surface of the wafer by the ring-shaped groove, a cutting unit that rotates a cutting blade and annularly cuts a circumferential part of the wafer held by the chuck table, and a cleaning unit that cleans a region outside the ring-shaped groove in the upper surface of the table and the upper surface of the table including the ring-shaped groove. The cleaning unit is positioned to the region outside the ring-shaped groove in the upper surface of the table and the upper surface of the chuck table including the ring-shaped groove, and the chuck table is rotated to clean the ring-shaped groove and the upper surface.