Grinding method for wafer

A grinding method for a wafer by using a grinding apparatus including a chuck table for holding said wafer and grinding means having a rotatable grinding wheel for grinding said wafer held on said chuck table, wherein the back side of said wafer having a plurality of devices on the front side is ground by said grinding wheel to suppress the motion of heavy metal in said wafer by a gettering effect, said grinding wheel including a frame and an abrasive member fixed to the free end of said frame, said abrasive member being produced by fixing diamond abrasive grains having a grain size of less than or equal to 1 μm with a vitrified bond, said grinding method comprising the steps of:

• attaching a protective member to the front side of said wafer;
• holding said wafer on said chuck table in the condition where said protective member is in contact with said chuck table;
• and
• rotating said grinding wheel and said chuck table to thereby grind the back side of said wafer by means of said abrasive member so that the average surface roughness of the back side of said wafer becomes less than or equal to 0.003 μm and the thickness of a strain layer remaining on the back side of said wafer becomes 0.05 μm;
• wherein each device produced by dividing said wafer has a die strength of substantially 1,000 MPa or more;
• and
• wherein the rotational speed of said chuck table is 100 to 400 rpm, the rotational speed of said grinding wheel is 1,000 to 6,000 rpm, the feed speed of said grinding means is 0.05 to 0.5 μm/sec and the grinding water usage is 2 to 10 liters/min.