Manufacturing process of element chip

A manufacturing process of an element chip, comprising:

• a substrate preparing step for preparing a substrate having first and second sides opposed to each other, and including a plurality of dicing regions and element regions defined by the dicing regions, the first side being covered by a protective film;
• a first laser-grooving step for forming a plurality of grooves by irradiating a laser beam to the first side of the substrate along the dicing regions, each of the grooves being shallower than a thickness of the substrate;
• and
• a plasma-dicing step for plasma-etching the substrate along the grooves in depth through a plasma exposure of the substrate, thereby to dice the substrate into a plurality of the element chips each having the element region;
• wherein the second side of the substrate and an annular frame surrounding the substrate are held on a holding sheet in the substrate preparing step, and
• wherein the laser beam is irradiated only in a region inside an outer edge of the substrate in the first laser-grooving step.