A wire saw apparatus including: a wire row formed of a wire wound around a plurality of wire guides and reciprocatively travels in an axial direction; a nozzle from a coolant or slurry is supplied to the wire; and a workpiece feed mechanism presses a held workpiece against the wire row, the wire saw apparatus slice the workpiece into a wafer shape by pressing the workpiece held by the workpiece feed mechanism against the wire row and feeding it for slicing while supplying the coolant or the slurry from the nozzle to the wire, the wire saw apparatus nozzle is arranged above the wire row to be orthogonal to the wire row, and windbreak plates are arranged on both left and right sides of the arranged nozzle seen from an axial direction.

A wafer processing method includes: a holding step of holding a wafer on a chuck table through a dicing tape; and a dividing step of cutting the wafer along division lines by a cutting blade. In the dividing step, cleaning water including pure water mixed with carbon dioxide is supplied to the front surface of the wafer, and cutting water including pure water alone or pure water mixed with carbon dioxide in a concentration lower than that of the cleaning water is supplied to the cutting blade. During cutting, therefore, the cleaning water and the cutting water are always shielded by each other. Consequently, the cutting blade can be prevented from being corroded or excessively worn due to the cleaning water, and the cutting water can be prevented from contacting the front surface of the wafer to cause electrostatic discharge damage to the devices.

A cutting apparatus includes a blade changing unit demounting an old cutting blade from a blade mount and mounting a new cutting blade to the blade mount. The blade changing unit includes a blade holder for holding a support base of each cutting blade and a moving portion for moving the blade holder in the axial direction of a boss portion of the blade mount in the condition where each cutting blade is held by the blade holder, thereby mounting the new cutting blade to the boss portion or demounting the old cutting blade from the boss portion. The cutting apparatus further includes a control unit controlling the blade changing unit. The control unit measures a signal indicating a force applied to the moving portion in mounting or demounting, and determines the condition of the blade changing unit and blade mount according to the signal measured by the measuring portion.

A method for slicing an ingot with a wire saw, comprising: forming a wire row by a wire spirally wound between a plurality of wire guides and configured to travel in an axial direction of the wire; feeding an ingot held with a workpiece-feeding mechanism to the wire row for slicing; and slicing the ingot into a plurality of wafers, while supplying a slurry to a contact portion between the ingot and the wire, wherein a warp direction in a wire travelling direction of a wafer obtained in previous ingot slicing is checked in advance, and the ingot is then sliced under a condition that a warp direction in a workpiece feeding direction of a wafer to be obtained matches the checked warp direction in the wire travelling direction, so that the wafers have identical warp directions in the workpiece feeding direction and in the wire travelling direction.

A method of processing a plate-shaped workpiece that includes layered bodies containing metal which are formed in superposed relation to projected dicing lines, includes the steps of holding the workpiece on a holding table, and thereafter, cutting the workpiece along the projected dicing lines with an annular cutting blade, thereby separating the layered bodies. The cutting blade has a slit which is open at an outer peripheral edge thereof. The step of cutting the workpiece includes the step of cutting the workpiece while supplying a cutting fluid containing an organic acid and an oxidizing agent to the workpiece.

In one instance, a method of manufacturing an integrated circuit includes a method for dicing a semiconductor wafer that includes disposing the semiconductor wafer on a moveable cutting table, cutting the semiconductor wafer, and ejecting a clearing fluid across an exposed side of the semiconductor wafer, with full coverage across the semiconductor wafer, at least during the cutting of the semiconductor wafer. The ejecting clearing fluid is ejected to form a layer or membrane of fluid that clears or reduces other fluids from the exposed side or surface of the semiconductor wafer. Other aspects are presented.

Edge trimming is performed on a wafer while a cleaning liquid is supplied to the center of a face side of the wafer and the wafer is rotated to form a film of the cleaning liquid that covers the face side of the wafer. The film of the cleaning liquid prevents the face side of the wafer from being dried, lowering the probability that swarf will be introduced into devices on the face side of the wafer. In addition, the consumption of the cleaning liquid can be reduced compared with a step of performing edge trimming on the wafer while supplying a curtain of cleaning liquid to the entire face side of the wafer.

A production method of a wafer includes a wafer production step in which ultrasonic water is ejected against an end face of an ingot with cleavage layers created therein, thereby severing the wafer from a rest of the ingot to produce the wafer.

A pressing head of the ingot slicing apparatus includes: a head main body in which a plurality of pneumatic supply ports configured to supply compressed air are formed so that pressure on each portion of the pressing head is separately controlled; pressing units installed on a lower end of the head main body, located to correspond to the pneumatic supply ports, and each configured to apply pressure to a side surface of an ingot by the compressed air supplied through each of the pneumatic supply ports; pneumatic correction units each installed on a lower surface of each of the pressing units and configured to control a pressure deviation between the plurality of pressing units; an adhesive plate installed to be in contact with lower side surfaces of the pneumatic correction units so that a lower surface of the adhesive plate is in direct contact with and presses the side surface of the ingot; and a coupling support unit configured to couple and support the head main body, the pressing units, the pneumatic correction units, and the adhesive plate.

A method for slicing a workpiece with a wire saw which includes a wire row formed by winding a fixed abrasive grain wire having abrasive grains secured to a surface thereof around multiple grooved rollers, the method including feeding a workpiece to the wire row for slicing while allowing the fixed abrasive grain wire to reciprocatively travel in an axial direction thereof, thereby slicing the workpiece at multiple positions aligned in an axial direction of the workpiece simultaneously. The method includes: supplying a coolant for workpiece slicing onto the wire row when the workpiece is sliced with the fixed abrasive grain wire; and supplying a coolant for workpiece drawing, which differs from and has a higher viscosity than the coolant for workpiece slicing, onto the wire row when the workpiece is drawn out from the wire row after the slicing of the workpiece.