A protective member forming apparatus includes a resin film adhering unit which causes a resin film to adhere to a front surface of a substrate so as to conform to recesses and projections on the front surface of the substrate, a support table which supports the substrate, a liquid resin supplying unit which supplies a curable liquid resin, a pressing unit which covers the liquid resin supplied to the resin film with a cover film and presses the cover film by a pressing surface to spread the liquid resin over the resin film, and a curing unit which cures the liquid resin being spread. The support table includes an annular bank region having a height not exceeding a thickness of the substrate and housing the substrate therein, and the bank region prevents the liquid resin to be spread by the pressing unit from flowing out from the substrate.

A substrate debonding apparatus configured to separate a support substrate attached to a first surface of a device substrate by an adhesive layer, the substrate debonding apparatus including a substrate chuck configured to support a second surface of the device substrate, the second surface being opposite to the first surface of the device substrate; a light irradiator configured to irradiate light to an inside of the adhesive layer; and a mask between the substrate chuck and the light irradiator, the mask including an opening through which an upper portion of the support substrate is exposed, and a first cooling passage or a second cooling passage, the first cooling passage being configured to provide a path in which a coolant is flowable, the second cooling passage being configured to provide a path in which air is flowable and to provide part of the air to a central portion of the opening.

Methods of manufacturing device assemblies, as well as associated semiconductor assemblies, devices, systems are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method of forming a semiconductor device assembly includes forming a semiconductor device assembly that includes a handle substrate, a semiconductor structure having a first side and a second side opposite the first side, and an intermediary material between the semiconductor structure and the handle substrate. The method also includes removing material from the semiconductor structure to form an opening extending from the first side of the semiconductor structure to at least the intermediary material at the second side of the semiconductor structure. The method further includes removing at least a portion of the intermediary material through the opening in the semiconductor structure to undercut the second side of the semiconductor structure.

The present invention provides a composition which is suppressed in decrease of the etching rate over time. A composition which contains; at least one of a quaternary alkyl ammonium fluoride and a hydrate of a quaternary alkyl ammonium fluoride; (A) an N-substituted amide compound that has no active hydrogen on a nitrogen atom and (B) a dipropylene glycol dimethyl ether, which serve as aprotic solvents; and an antioxidant.

Disclosed are methods of fabricating semiconductor devices and methods of separating substrates. The semiconductor device fabricating method comprises providing a release layer between a carrier substrate and a first surface of a device substrate to attach the device substrate to the carrier substrate, irradiating the carrier substrate with an ultraviolet ray to separate the carrier substrate from the release layer and to expose one surface of the release layer, and performing a cleaning process on the one surface of the release layer to expose the first surface of the device substrate. The release layer includes an aromatic polymerization unit and a siloxane polymerization unit.

A method is provided for fabricating a semiconductor wafer having a device side, a back side opposite the device side and an outer periphery edge. Suitably, the method includes: forming a top conducting layer on the device side of the semiconductor wafer; forming a passivation layer over the top conducting layer, the passivation layer being formed so as not to extend to the outer periphery edge of the semiconductor wafer; and forming a protective layer over the passivation layer, the protective layer being spin coated over the passivation layer so as to have a smooth top surface at least in a region proximate to the outer periphery edge of the semiconductor wafer.

A protective sheeting for use in processing a semiconductor-sized wafer has a substantially circular base sheet and a substantially annular adhesive layer applied to a peripheral portion of a first surface of the base sheet. The inner diameter of the adhesive layer is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. Further, the outer diameter of the adhesive layer is larger than the inner diameter of an annular frame for holding the wafer. A related method includes attaching the protective sheeting to a front side or a back side of the wafer via the adhesive layer on the first surface of the base sheet so that an inner peripheral portion of the adhesive layer adheres to an outer peripheral portion of the front side or the back side of the wafer, and processing the wafer after the protective sheeting has been attached to the front side or the back side thereof.

Assemblies including a device layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate and a replacement substrate replacing a handle wafer of the SOI substrate, and methods for transferring the device layer of the SOI substrate from the handle wafer to the replacement substrate. A device structure is formed in a first section of the handle wafer, and a second section of the handle wafer adjoining the first section of the handle wafer is removed to expose a surface of the buried dielectric layer of the silicon-on-insulator substrate. A permanent substrate is attached to the surface of the buried dielectric layer. When the permanent substrate is attached to the surface of the buried dielectric layer, the section of the handle wafer is received inside a cavity defined in the permanent substrate.

Methods of forming bonded semiconductor structures include providing a first semiconductor structure including a device structure, bonding a second semiconductor structure to the first semiconductor structure below about 400° C., forming a through wafer interconnect through the second semiconductor structure and into the first semiconductor structure, and bonding a third semiconductor structure to the second semiconductor structure on a side thereof opposite the first semiconductor structure. In additional embodiments, a first semiconductor structure is provided. Ions are implanted into a second semiconductor structure. The second semiconductor structure is bonded to the first semiconductor structure. The second semiconductor structure is fractured along an ion implant plane, a through wafer interconnect is formed at least partially through the first and second semiconductor structures, and a third semiconductor structure is bonded to the second semiconductor structure on a side thereof opposite the first semiconductor structure. Bonded semiconductor structures are formed using such methods.

A wafer-fixing tape, having: an temporary-adhesive layer provided on a substrate film, wherein the substrate film contains an ionomer resin comprising a terpolymer crosslinked by a metal ion, and wherein an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the substrate film opposite to the temporary-adhesive layer 5b is from 0.1 to 3.0 μm; a processing method of a semiconductor wafer; and a semiconductor chip.