After a glass sheet (G) having a scribe line (S) formed thereon is placed on a placement table (10) and positioned so that the scribe line (S) is positioned in a bending stress applying portion (15) of the placement table (10), when the glass sheet (G) is split along the scribe line (S) by applying a bending stress to a formation region of the scribe line (S) by the bending stress applying portion (15), the glass sheet (G) is positioned by laying a resin sheet (9) under the glass sheet (G) on the placement table (10) and aligning one side (G1) of the glass sheet (G) extending in a direction along the scribe line (S) with marks (Ma to Nd) projected onto a protruding portion (9a) of the resin sheet (9) by laser markers (16a to 16d).

A manufacturing method of semiconductor wafers includes preparing a ingot having a first major surface and a second major surface in a back side of the first major surface, a peeling layer being formed in the ingot along the first major surface; and applying a load to the ingot from outside thereof with respect to a surface direction along the first major surface such that a moment with a supporting point which is a first end of the ingot in the surface direction acts on the ingot, thereby peeling a wafer precursor from the ingot. Also, a dynamic force may be applied to the ingot such that a tensile stress along an ingot thickness direction acts on an entire area of the ingot in the surface direction, thereby peeling the wafer precursor from the ingot.

A wafer producing apparatus detects a facet area from an upper surface of an SiC ingot, sets X and Y coordinates of plural points lying on a boundary between the facet area and a nonfacet area in an XY plane, and sets a focal point of a laser beam having a transmission wavelength to SiC inside the SiC ingot at a predetermined depth from the upper surface of the SiC ingot. The predetermined depth corresponds to the thickness of the SiC wafer to be produced. A control unit increases the energy of the laser beam and raises a position of the focal point in applying the laser beam to the facet area as compared with the energy of the laser beam and a position of the focal point in applying the laser beam to the nonfacet area, according to the X and Y coordinates.

After peel-off layers have been formed in a workpiece of monocrystalline silicon such as an ingot, a bare wafer, or a device wafer with use of a laser beam having a wavelength transmittable through monocrystalline silicon, a substrate is separated from the workpiece along the peel-off layers acting as separation initiating points. The process results in increased productivity for the manufacture of substrates, compared with a process of manufacturing substrates from a workpiece with use of a wire saw.

An outer circumferential region of a metal film and a portion of an outer circumferential region of a substrate on a reverse side thereof are removed, thereby exposing the outer circumferential region of the substrate and creating on a reverse side of an outer circumferential region of the wafer an exposed surface where a portion closer to a face side of a wafer is located outwardly of a portion remoter from the face side of the wafer. When a tape is affixed to a reverse side of the wafer, no gap or a reduced gap is formed between the tape and the outer circumferential region of the wafer. As a result, problems are restrained from occurring when the wafer is divided to manufacture chips therefrom.

Systems and method for aligning components of photonic systems are provided. An optical component for integration into and optical coupling within a photonic system is created by separating the component from a substrate to form a precisely defined surface on the optical component, the surface being precisely spaced from an optical feature of the component to be optically coupled within the photonic system. The precisely defined surface of the optical component is then pressed against a reference surface to position the optical feature in a predefined position and/or orientation for optical coupling of the optical feature within the photonic system. Passive precise alignment and optical coupling is thus provided without the need for iterative readjustment, multi-axis feedback, or active feedback.

A substrate manufacturing method of manufacturing a substrate from a workpiece is disclosed. A laser beam is first split and condensed to form a plurality of focal points aligned side by side along a first direction, and with the focal points positioned inside the workpiece, the focal points and the workpiece are moved relative to each other along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction such that a separation layer is formed. A region of the focal points and the workpiece are then moved relative to each other along the first direction. These relative movements are alternately and repeatedly performed. The splitting and condensation of the laser beam are performed such that a volume expansion of the workpiece associated with the formation of the modified regions is relatively small in the vicinity of at least one focal point formed on a center side.

A method of producing a wafer from a hexagonal single-crystal ingot includes the steps of planarizing an end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot, forming a peel-off layer in the hexagonal single-crystal ingot by applying a pulsed laser beam whose wavelength is transmittable through the hexagonal single-crystal ingot while positioning a focal point of the pulsed laser beam in the hexagonal single-crystal ingot at a depth corresponding to a thickness of a wafer to be produced from the planarized end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot, recording a fabrication history on the planarized end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot by applying a pulsed laser beam to the hexagonal single-crystal ingot while positioning a focal point of the last-mentioned pulsed laser beam in a device-free area of the wafer to be produced.

A method is disclosed for dividing a composite material in which a brittle material layer and a resin layer are laminated, including: a resin removing step of irradiating the resin layer with a laser beam oscillated from a first laser source along a scheduled dividing line of the composite material to form a processing groove along the scheduled dividing line; a brittle material removing step of irradiating the brittle material layer with a laser beam oscillated from an ultrashort pulsed laser source along the scheduled dividing line to form a processing mark along the scheduled dividing line; and a brittle material layer dividing step of generating thermal stress in the brittle material layer by irradiating the brittle material layer with a laser beam oscillated from a second laser source from the opposite side to the resin layer to thereby divide the brittle material layer.

A processing method for processing a single-crystal silicon wafer that has a first surface and a second surface formed in such a manner that a specific crystal plane included in a crystal plane {100} is exposed in each of the first and second surfaces and has devices formed in the respective regions marked out by planned dividing lines in the first surface. The method includes forming dividing origins along each planned dividing line, forming a separation layer along the crystal plane of the second surface through relatively moving a focal point and the wafer along a first direction that is parallel to the crystal plane of the second surface and in which an acute angle formed between the first direction and the crystal orientation <100> is equal to or smaller than 5°, and separating the wafer into a first-surface-side wafer including devices and a second-surface-side wafer including no devices.