A method of grinding a workpiece includes a holding step of holding the workpiece on a flat holding surface of a holding table and a grinding step of rotating a grinding wheel to turn grindstones along an annular track while rotating the holding table, and bringing the grindstones into grinding contact with an upper surface of the workpiece to thereby grind the workpiece. The grinding step includes the step of bringing the grindstones into grinding contact with the upper surface of the workpiece in a state where the annular track is closest to the holding surface in an area between a point above a center of the holding surface and a point above an outer circumferential end of the holding surface.

A semiconductor device manufacturing method includes a step which prepares a wafer source and a supporting member, a supporting step which supports the wafer source by the supporting member, and a wafer separating step in which the wafer source is cut in a horizontal direction from a thickness direction intermediate portion of the wafer source to separate, from the wafer source, a wafer structure which includes the supporting member and a wafer cut away from the wafer source.

A workpiece processing apparatus which coats a front surface of a workpiece with a resin, the workpiece having devices formed in regions demarcated by a plurality of planned dividing lines formed in a lattice pattern. The workpiece processing apparatus includes a cassette mounting base mounted with a cassette housing a plurality of workpieces, a resin coating unit that coats the front surface of the workpiece with the resin, a resin curing unit that cures the resin by applying an external stimulus to the coated resin, a resin grinding unit that flattens the cured resin by grinding the cured resin by a rotating grinding stone, and a conveying mechanism that conveys the workpiece between the units.

A method for processing a crystalline substrate to form multiple patterns of subsurface laser damage facilitates subsequent fracture of the substrate to yield first and second substrate portions of reduced thickness. Multiple (e.g., two, three, or more) groups of parallel lines of multiple subsurface laser damage patterns may be sequentially interspersed with one another, with at least some lines of different groups not crossing one another. Certain implementations include formation of multiple subsurface laser damage patterns including groups of parallel lines that are non-parallel to one another, but with each line remaining within ±5 degrees of perpendicular to the <1120> direction of a hexagonal crystal structure of a material of the substrate. Further methods involve formation of initial and subsequent subsurface laser damage patterns that are centered at different depths within an interior of a substrate, with the subsurface laser damage patterns being registered with one another and having vertical extents that are overlapping.

Carbon atoms of a single-crystal diamond and active abrasives are used to produce a chemical reaction to form carbides under a specific grinding condition of no higher than a graphitization temperature, and a hard abrasive is used to remove the carbides.

An object to be solved by the present invention is to provide a new technology for producing a SiC substrate in which strain is removed and capable of achieving a flat surface as flat as a surface that has been subjected to CMP. The present invention, which solves the above object, is a method for producing a SiC substrate, the method including an etching step of etching a SiC substrate having arithmetic average roughness (Ra) of a surface of equal to or less than 100 nm in an atmosphere containing Si element and C element.

A grinding apparatus includes a table that holds a workpiece, and a grinding unit including a grinding wheel mounted to a spindle. The grinding wheel has a grindstone formed by binding abrasive grains with a bonding agent. In addition, the grinding apparatus further includes: a supply unit that supplies grinding water to at least the grindstone when grinding the workpiece; and a light applying unit that is disposed adjacent to the table and that applies light to a grinding surface of the grindstone grinding the workpiece held by the table. The light applying unit includes a light emission section that emits light, and a diffusion preventive wall that surrounds the light emission section and prevents diffusion of the light.

Processed inorganic wafers and processing a wafer stack including an abrasive process are disclosed. A wafer stack may be formed at least by performing a temporary bonding process to temporarily bond at least a first inorganic wafer to a first surface of a handle wafer. The handle wafer may include at least one inorganic wafer, and the temporary bonding process may include formation of an adhesion layer between the first inorganic wafer and the first surface of the handle wafer. The adhesion layer may include a vacuum deposited carbonaceous film with a thickness between 1 nm and 100 nm, inclusive. An abrasive process may be applied to at least part of the wafer stack, and the abrasive process may reduce a thickness of the first inorganic wafer of the wafer stack. The first inorganic wafer may be debonded from the handle wafer after applying the abrasive process.

There is provided a manufacturing method of a wafer. The manufacturing method of a wafer includes a preparation step of preparing a wafer that includes a substrate and a stacked body disposed on the front surface side of the substrate and that has a device region and an outer circumferential surplus region, the device region having a plurality of devices disposed in a plurality of regions marked out by a plurality of planned dividing lines arranged to intersect each other, the outer circumferential surplus region surrounding the device region, and a laser processed groove forming step of forming laser processed grooves along the planned dividing lines through executing irradiation with a first laser beam with a wavelength having absorbability with respect to the stacked body, along the planned dividing lines from the side of the stacked body of the wafer.

The wafer thinning method of the present disclosure includes: providing a wafer having a front surface and a back surface opposite to the front surface; grinding the back surface of the wafer with a grinding bit to thin the wafer to a predetermined thickness; dicing the wafer with a dicing blade; ablating the wafer by performing a chemical solution or plasma process on the back surface of the wafer to thin the wafer; and separating the wafer into a plurality of dies.