A wafer processing method includes the steps of forming a bonded wafer by bonding one surface of a first wafer which is chambered at an outer peripheral edge and includes a device region and an outer peripheral surplus region, to a second wafer, irradiating a laser beam along the outer peripheral edge of the first wafer and forming an annular modified region, thereby segmenting the first wafer into an outer peripheral annular portion and a central region, bonding an expand tape to the other surface of the first wafer, expanding the expand tape, thereby splitting the first wafer into the outer peripheral annular portion and the central region from the annular modified region as a starting point and breaking off the outer peripheral annular portion from the bonded wafer, and grinding the first wafer from the other surface to a finish thickness.

A sheet affixing apparatus includes a drawing unit for drawing a sheet from a sheet roll and a sheet cutter for cutting the sheet drawn from the sheet roll by the drawing unit. The sheet cutter includes a sheet support for supporting from below the sheet drawn from the sheet roll by the drawing unit, a cutting knife for cutting the sheet supported by the sheet support, along the sheet support, and a sheet presser for pressing the sheet against the sheet support forwardly of the cutting knife in a direction along which the cutting knife moves in cutting the sheet, when the sheet is cut.

A processing apparatus includes a reinforcing portion removing mechanism. The reinforcing portion removing mechanism includes a laser beam irradiating unit configured to form a cutting groove by applying a laser beam to a base of a ring-shaped reinforcing portion formed on a periphery of a wafer, a first raising and lowering table configured to hold and raise a frame unit temporarily placed on a temporary placement table, and position the frame unit at the laser beam irradiating unit, and a separating unit configured to separate the ring-shaped reinforcing portion from the cutting groove. The separating unit includes an ultraviolet ray irradiating unit, a second raising and lowering table, a separator, and a discarding unit.

A method of processing a wafer includes preparing a ring-shaped frame having an opening for accommodating a wafer therein, preparing a wafer having a protrusive ring-shaped stiffener on a reverse side thereof in an outer circumferential excess region thereof, producing a frame unit by affixing a tape to the frame and the reverse side of the wafer, capturing an image of the ring-shaped stiffener and setting a center of an inner circumferential circle of the ring-shaped stiffener on the basis of the captured image, rotating the frame unit around the center of the inner circumferential circle of the ring-shaped stiffener to cut the wafer along the inner circumferential circle of the ring-shaped stiffener, and removing the ring-shaped stiffener severed from the frame unit.

A wafer processing method includes a liquid layer forming step of forming a layer of a liquid on a supporting face of a wafer table included in a supporting unit, a fixing step of placing a side of an adhesive sheet of the wafer on the wafer table on which the layer of the liquid has been formed, and fixing the wafer to the wafer table through the adhesive sheet, a detecting step of imaging the wafer with an imaging unit which is positioned opposite to the supporting face of the wafer table to thereby detect the division lines formed on the front side of the wafer, and a processing step of processing a portion on a back side of the wafer corresponding to each of the division lines.

A pick-up device 10 for picking up a semiconductor chip 100 attached to a front surface of a sheet material 110 is provided with: a stage 12 that includes a material a part or the entirety of which is capable of transmitting a destaticizing electromagnetic wave having an ionization effect and that attracts and holds a rear surface of the sheet material 110; a jacking-up pin 26 for jacking up the semiconductor chip 100 from the rear side of the stage 12; and a destaticizing mechanism 20 that destaticizes charge generated between the semiconductor chip 100 and the sheet material 110 by irradiating the rear surface of the semiconductor chip 100 with the destaticizing electromagnetic wave that is made to pass through the sheet material 110 from the rear side of the stage 12.

A technique for handling an integrated circuit/tape assembly having a plurality of integrated circuits supported by underlying dicing tape involves placing the integrated circuit/tape assembly on a bottom file frame carrier (FFC) frame having structure (e.g., an inner rim or flexible pegs), placing a top FFC frame having a central opening over the integrated circuit/tape assembly, and mating the top and bottom FFC frames such that the dicing tape is pulled over the structure thereby laterally stretching the dicing tape, which breaks wafer saw bows holding the integrated circuits together. The lateral stretching of the dicing tape increases distance between adjacent integrated circuits in at least two mutually orthogonal lateral directions, thereby inhibiting the adjacent integrated circuits from colliding during shipment or storage for subsequent processing. The resulting assembly can be thinner than conventional FFC configurations, which results in more efficient shipment and storage.

A device configured to receive a first carrier with a first receptacle; to guide a second carrier in a conveying direction with a second receptacle; to receive the first carrier with the first receptacle so that the components carried by it are oriented towards the second receptacle; to separate the components in response to information from a control unit; and convey the second carrier in its position relative to a placement position so that an electronic subassembly on the second carrier reaches the placement position. The second receptacle has a contact surface for the second carrier which is curved in the conveying direction of the second carrier and the second receptacle at least partially includes a second conveying device which occupies only part of the second receptacle transversely to the conveying direction of the second carrier.

There is provided a manufacturing method of a protective-component-provided workpiece. The manufacturing method of a protective-component-provided workpiece includes a step of dissolving a thermoplastic resin whose solubility parameter is equal to or higher than 8.5, in a liquid ultraviolet-curable resin, to prepare a liquid mixed resin, a step of supplying the mixed resin to a support surface of a support table to form a resin layer with a predetermined thickness, a step of irradiating the resin layer with ultraviolet rays and curing the resin layer to form a protective component with a sheet shape, and a step of heating the sheet-shaped protective component before or after one surface of the sheet-shaped protective component and one surface of the workpiece are brought into close contact with each other, and causing the sheet-shaped protective component to come into close contact with the workpiece and integrate with the workpiece.

A hybrid die bonding method includes the following steps: dicing a wafer into a plurality of dies arranged on a plurality of target blocks of a carrier film, wherein surfaces of each of the dies having no solder and bump; cleaning particulate from first surfaces of the dies; separating sides and corners of second surfaces of the dies from the target blocks; turning the carrier film and transferring the dies to a first carrier, wherein the first surfaces of the dies contact the first carrier; removing the carrier film from the second surfaces of the dies; cleaning particulate from the second surfaces of the dies; and transferring the dies from the first carrier to a substrate, wherein a surface of the substrate having no solder and bump. As such, the method reduces the adhesive force between the dies and the carrier film.