Water soluble mask for substrate dicing by laser and plasma etch
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsWei-Sheng Lei, Saravjeet Singh, Madhava Rao Yalamanchili, Brad Eaton, Ajay Kumar
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Abstract
Methods of dicing substrates having a plurality of ICs are disclosed. A method includes forming a mask comprising a water soluble material layer over the semiconductor substrate. The mask is patterned with a femtosecond laser scribing process to provide a patterned mask with gaps. The patterning exposes regions of the substrate between the ICs. The substrate is then etched through the gaps in the patterned mask to singulate the IC and the water soluble material layer is washed off.
Claims14
A system for dicing a semiconductor substrate comprising a plurality of ICs, the system comprising:
- a laser scribe module to pattern a mask and expose regions of the substrate between the ICs, the mask comprising a layer of the water soluble material;
- a plasma etch module physically coupled to the laser scribe module to singulate the ICs by plasma etching of the substrate;
- a robotic transfer chamber to transfer a laser scribed substrate from the laser scribe module to the plasma etch module;
- and
- a wet process module to wash off a water soluble mask after plasma etching the substrate.
A system for dicing a semiconductor substrate comprising a plurality of ICs, the system comprising:
- one of a spin coater to apply an aqueous solution of a water soluble material onto the substrate or a vacuum tape module to laminate a dry film of a water soluble material onto the substrate;
- a laser scribe module to pattern a mask and expose regions of the substrate between the ICs, the mask comprising a layer of the water soluble material;
- a plasma etch module physically coupled to the laser scribe module to singulate the ICs by plasma etching of the substrate;
- and
- a robotic transfer chamber to transfer a laser scribed substrate from the laser scribe module to the plasma etch module, the robotic transfer chamber coupled to the one of the spin coater or the vacuum tape module.
A system for dicing a semiconductor substrate comprising a plurality of ICs, the system comprising:
- a plasma etch module to singulate the ICs by plasma etching of the substrate through a water soluble mask;
- a wet process module to wash off the water soluble mask after plasma etching the substrate;
- and
- a robotic transfer chamber to transfer the substrate from the plasma etch module to the wet process module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.