Chip manufacturing method

Abstract

To improve productivity in manufacturing a chip by dividing a conjugate along a predetermined dividing line.SOLUTION: A chip manufacturing method includes: a joint material removal step 1100 of cutting a wafer of a conjugate from a front face side along a predetermined dividing line with a cutting blade and exposing a support substrate by removing a joint material, which hinders plasma etching of the conjugate when performing the plasma etching with a gas turned to plasma, using the cutting blade; a mask formation step 1200 of forming a mask by covering the front face of the wafer with a protective film before or after the joint material removal step 1100; a plasma etching step 1300 of dividing the conjugate into a plurality of chips by applying anisotropic plasma etching from the front face side of the wafer to the support substrate with the gas turned to plasma along the predetermined dividing line after the joint material removal step 1100 and the mask formation step 1200; and a mask removal step 1400 of removing the mask from the wafer after the plasma etching step 1300.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a chip manufacturing method. [Background technology]

[0002] In the manufacturing process of MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) devices such as acceleration sensors, pressure sensors, and microphones, a silicon wafer bonded to a supporting substrate such as silicon or glass and on which multiple MEMS devices are formed is divided along planned division lines to manufacture individual MEMS device chips (for example, Patent Document 1).

[0003] In recent years, MEMS device chips have become smaller in size in order to mount MEMS devices such as acceleration sensors on small terminals such as mobile phones. Therefore, there is a need to manufacture as many MEMS device chips as possible on one wafer by making the width of the planned division line as narrow as possible. Therefore, when dividing using a cutting blade, it is necessary to cut with a cutting blade with a narrow cutting width. However, in MEMS device manufacturing, the wafer is bonded to a support substrate to form a bonded body with a large thickness, so the cutting blade cutting edge exposure amount of the cutting blade must be long. However, when using a cutting blade with a narrow cutting width and a long cutting edge exposure length, there is a problem that when the cutting blade is rotated at high speed, the cutting blade rotates while shaking due to air resistance, causing meandering. Therefore, a method of etching the wafer or the support substrate with plasma gas has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 2). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-210083 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2006-210577 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, in the conventional technology, when a functional film such as a resin or an oxide film is used as a bonding material for forming a bonded body, etching with plasma gas is difficult, and plasma etching is hindered. Therefore, in a chip manufacturing method for manufacturing a plurality of chips by dividing a bonded body, in which a back surface of a wafer having a plurality of planned division lines set in a lattice pattern is bonded to a support substrate by a bonding material (functional film) along the planned division lines, there is a problem that a method capable of dividing the bonded body into chips with high productivity, even when the planned division lines are thin and the bonded body is thick, must be provided.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above, and its object is to provide a chip manufacturing method that can improve productivity in manufacturing multiple chips by dividing a bonded body along a planned division line. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, the chip manufacturing method of the present invention is a chip manufacturing method for manufacturing a plurality of chips by dividing a bonded body, in which a back surface of a wafer having a plurality of planned dividing lines set in a grid pattern on its surface is bonded to a supporting substrate by a bonding material, along the planned dividing lines, and is characterized by comprising a bonding material removal step of cutting the bonded body from the front surface side of the wafer along the planned dividing lines with a cutting blade, and removing the bonding material that interferes with plasma etching of the bonded body with a plasmaized gas with the cutting blade to expose the supporting substrate, a mask formation step of covering the front surface of the wafer with a protective film to form a mask before or after the bonding material removal step, a plasma etching step of performing anisotropic plasma etching with the plasmaized gas on the supporting substrate from the front surface side of the wafer along the planned dividing lines after the bonding material removal step and the mask formation step, to divide the bonded body into a plurality of chips, and a mask removal step of removing the mask from the wafer after the plasma etching step.

[0008] In the above chip manufacturing method, the mask forming step may form the mask by coating the water-resistant protective film before the bonding material removing step.

[0009] In the above chip manufacturing method, the mask forming step may form the mask by coating the protective film containing fluorocarbon.

[0010] In the above chip manufacturing method, the mask forming step may cover the protective film at a chamber room temperature of -5°C to -30°C after the bonding material removing step.

[0011] In the above chip manufacturing method, the wafer or the supporting substrate may include a MEMS device in an area defined by the plurality of planned dividing lines.

[0012] In the above chip manufacturing method, the cutting blade may have a cutting edge width of 20 μm or less. Effect of the Invention

[0013] The present invention provides an advantage in that it is possible to improve the productivity in manufacturing a plurality of chips by dividing a bonded body along a planned dividing line. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a wafer used in a chip manufacturing method according to an embodiment. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a bonded body having the wafer shown in FIG. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the bonded body shown in FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a chip produced from the bonded body. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the bonding material removing step shown in FIG. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the configuration of a plasma etching apparatus. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an enlarged portion of the cut groove of the bonded body. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the plasma etching step. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an enlarged portion of the cut groove of the plasma-etched bonded body. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a modified chip manufacturing method. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the contents described in the following embodiment. Furthermore, the components described below include those that a person skilled in the art can easily imagine and those that are substantially the same. Furthermore, the configurations described below can be appropriately combined. Furthermore, various omissions, substitutions, or modifications of the configurations can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0016] [Embodiment] A chip manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a wafer used in the chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment. Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a bonded body having the wafer shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the bonded body shown in Fig. 2.

[0017] The chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment is a chip manufacturing method for manufacturing a plurality of chips from a wafer 1 shown in FIG. 1. In the embodiment, the wafer 1 includes, for example, a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer or an optical device wafer using silicon, sapphire, silicon carbide (SiC), gallium arsenide, or the like as a substrate. The wafer 1 has a flat surface 2, and devices 4 are formed in each region partitioned by dividing lines 3 that intersect with each other (in the present embodiment, they are orthogonal). In the present embodiment, the devices 4 are, for example, MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) devices such as acceleration sensors, pressure sensors, microphones, etc. The devices 4 may be ICs (Integrated Circuits) or LSIs (Large Scale Integration), etc. The wafer 1 is divided into device regions along the dividing lines 3 by a cutting device or the like, to manufacture a plurality of chips 5.

[0018] 2 and 3, the bonded body 20 is formed by bonding the wafer 1 to a disk-shaped support substrate 10. The bonded body 20 is formed by bonding the wafer 1 and the support substrate 10 via a bonding material 11 such as a resin or a nitride film. The support substrate 10 is formed in a disk shape, for example, mainly made of silicon or glass. The support substrate 10 is a relatively hard plate-like member that suppresses deformation of the wafer 1 when the wafer 1 is thinned. In this embodiment, the outer diameter of the support substrate 10 is equal to the outer diameter of the wafer 1, but may be larger than the outer diameter.

[0019] The bonding material 11 is a functional film, and includes a resin such as an adhesive, an oxide film, a nitride film, etc., which are difficult to etch with plasma. The bonded body 20 is particularly a bonded MEMS device. In the conventional chip manufacturing method, the total thickness is relatively thick due to the bonded body 20, but since the chip size is small, there is a need to divide the chips at a thin kerf. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to cut the wafer 1 at a thin kerf by blade dicing alone because the total thickness of the wafer 1 is thick, and the functional film cannot be broken through by plasma etching alone. For this reason, the chip manufacturing method according to this embodiment makes it possible to improve the productivity of manufacturing a plurality of chips 5 by dividing the bonded body 20 along the planned division lines 3.

[0020] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a chip manufactured from the bonded body 20. In this embodiment, the chip 5 shown in FIG. 4 is one device chip divided and aligned from the bonded body 20. The chip 5 includes a device 4 which is a MEMS device, an outer peripheral portion 6 surrounding the device 4, and a bridge portion 7 connecting the device 4 and the outer peripheral portion 6. The chip 5 has a hollow portion formed on the back side of the device 4 and in the area inside the outer peripheral portion 6. In this embodiment, the wafer 1 includes the device 4 (MEMS device) in an area partitioned by a plurality of planned division lines 3. The device 4 is in a floating state above the bonded to the support substrate 10 by the bonding material 11. In addition, the bonded body 20 may include a functional film such as an insulating film or a metal film formed on the back side of the wafer 1.

[0021] (Chip manufacturing method) Fig. 5 is a flow chart showing the flow of a chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment. The chip manufacturing method shown in Fig. 5 is a method for manufacturing a plurality of chips 5 by dividing a bonded body 20, in which a back surface of a wafer 1 having a plurality of planned division lines 3 set in a lattice pattern on a front surface 2 is bonded to a support substrate 10 by a bonding material 11, along the plurality of planned division lines 3. The chip manufacturing method includes a bonding material removing step 1100, a mask forming step 1200, a plasma etching step 1300, and a mask removing step 1400. The chip manufacturing method is performed in the order of the bonding material removing step 1100, the mask forming step 1200, the plasma etching step 1300, and the mask removing step 1400.

[0022] (Zygote Removal Step) First, the chip manufacturing method executes a bonding material removing step 1100. Fig. 6 is a diagram for explaining the bonding material removing step shown in Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 6, the bonding material removing step 1100 is a step in which a cutting blade 121 is used to cut along the intended dividing line 3 from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1 of the bonded body 20, and the bonding material 11 that becomes an obstacle when the bonded body 20 is plasma-etched with a plasma gas is removed by the cutting blade 121 to expose the support substrate 10.

[0023] In the example shown in FIG. 6, the processing apparatus 100 includes a holding table 110 for holding the bonded body 20, and a processing unit 120. The holding table 110 includes a disk-shaped frame 111 having a recess formed therein, and a disk-shaped suction portion 112 fitted into the recess. The suction portion 112 of the holding table 110 is formed of a porous ceramic or the like having a large number of porous holes, and is connected to a vacuum suction source (not shown) via a vacuum suction path (not shown). The upper surface of the suction portion 112 of the holding table 110 is a holding surface 113 that suction-holds the placed bonded body 20 from below. In this embodiment, the holding table 110 suction-holds the protective sheet 30 attached to the surface of the support substrate 10 of the bonded body 20 in a state of contact with the holding surface 113.

[0024] The processing unit 120 is a cutting unit for cutting the wafer 1, and includes a cutting blade 121 attached to a rotating spindle 122 that is driven to rotate. In this embodiment, the cutting blade 121 has a blade width of 10 μm or more and 20 μm or less. For example, when the total thickness of the bonded body 20 is 300 μm, the cutting blade 121 usually has a blade tip protruding amount up to 25 times the blade width. A cutting blade 121 with a blade width of 10 μm is not suitable for dividing the wafer 1 because of its blade protruding amount of 250 μm. For this reason, in the chip manufacturing method according to this embodiment, the thickness region of the bonded body 20 up to the bonding material 11 that is not suitable for plasma etching is removed by a cutting blade 121 with a narrow blade width and an appropriately adjusted blade tip protruding length.

[0025] In the bonding material removing step 1100, the processing device 100 cuts the wafer 1 with the cutting blade 121 along the planned dividing lines 3 of the wafer 1 to form cut grooves 40 in the wafer 1, thereby removing the bonding material 11 that hinders plasma etching. The processing device 100 cuts the cutting blade 121 from above the wafer 1 to a position reaching the support substrate 10, thereby forming the cut grooves 40 in the wafer 1. That is, the bonding material removing step 1100 is a step of cutting and removing the bonding material 11 in the multiple cut grooves 40 of the bonded body 20.

[0026] (Mask formation step) Next, the chip manufacturing method executes a mask forming step 1200. The mask forming step 1200 is a step of forming a mask by covering the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 with a protective film before or after the bonding material removing step 1100. Fig. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the configuration of a plasma etching apparatus. The mask forming step 1200 is performed by the plasma etching apparatus 200 shown in Fig. 7.

[0027] The plasma etching apparatus 200 includes a holding means 210 for holding the bonded body 20 (wafer 1), a gas ejection head 220 for ejecting gas, and a chamber 230 that houses the holding means 210 and the gas ejection head 220. The plasma etching apparatus 200 may not be a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) plasma etching apparatus as in this embodiment, but may be, for example, an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching apparatus that applies high-frequency power for plasma generation to an induction coil and converts an etching gas into plasma by interaction with a magnetic field formed in the induction coil. Alternatively, it may be an electron cyclotron resonance plasma (ECR) etching apparatus that generates plasma by utilizing cyclotron resonance of electrons in combination with microwaves of a predetermined wavelength.

[0028] For example, the holding means 210 is an electrostatic chuck, made of a dielectric material such as ceramic, and supported from below by a support member 211. Inside the holding means 210, a disk-shaped electrode 212 that generates an electric charge when a voltage is applied is disposed parallel to a holding surface 213 of the holding means 210. The electrode 212 is connected to a matching box 214 and a bias high-frequency power supply 215. For example, inside the holding means 210, a water passage (not shown) is formed, and the holding means 210 is cooled from the inside to a predetermined temperature by cooling water circulating through the water passage. For example, the holding means 210 is not limited to the monopolar electrostatic chuck shown in the figure, and may be a bipolar electrostatic chuck.

[0029] A gas diffusion space 221 is provided inside a gas injection head 220 that is arranged on the upper part of a chamber 230 via a bearing 231 so as to be movable up and down. A gas inlet 222 communicates with the upper part of the gas diffusion space 221, and a plurality of gas discharge ports 223 communicate with the lower part of the gas diffusion space 221. The lower end of each gas discharge port 223 opens toward the holding surface 213 of the holding means 210. A gas supply unit 240 connected to the gas inlet 222 stores a plasma gas of Ar / C4F8 or a fluorine-based gas such as SF6, CF4, C2F6, or C4F8.

[0030] A high frequency power supply 251 is connected to the gas ejection head 220 via a matching box 250. By supplying high frequency power from the high frequency power supply 251 to the gas ejection head 220 via the matching box 250, the etching gas ejected from the gas ejection port 223 can be turned into plasma. In the plasma etching apparatus 200, conditions such as the amount of gas ejected, time, and high frequency power are controlled by a control unit (not shown).

[0031] An exhaust port 260 is formed at the bottom of the chamber 230, and an exhaust device 261 is connected to this exhaust port 260, so that the inside of the chamber 230 can be depressurized to create a vacuum atmosphere. In addition, a load / unload port 270 and a gate valve 271 for opening and closing this load / unload port 270 are provided at the side of the chamber 230. The inside of the chamber 230 is set to a chamber room temperature of -5°C to -30°C.

[0032] First, the plasma etching apparatus 200 loads the bonded body 20 into the chamber 230 through the load / unload port 270, and places the bonded body 20 on the holding surface 213 of the holding means 210 with the wafer 1 side of the bonded body 20 facing upward. Then, the plasma etching apparatus 200 closes the gate valve 271, and reduces the pressure in the chamber 230 by the exhaust device 261 to create a vacuum atmosphere.

[0033] The plasma etching apparatus 200 lowers the gas ejection head 220 to a predetermined height position, and supplies Ar / C4F8 gas from the gas supply unit 240 into the chamber 230. The plasma etching apparatus 200 also applies high-frequency power from the high-frequency power source 251 to the gas ejection head 220, generating a high-frequency electric field between the gas ejection head 220 and the holding means 210, and converting the gas into plasma. In parallel with this, the plasma etching apparatus 200 applies a voltage from the bias high-frequency power source 215 to the electrode 212, generating a dielectric polarization phenomenon between the holding surface 213 of the holding means 210 and the wafer 1, and adsorbs and holds the wafer 1 on the holding surface 213 by an electrostatic adsorption force generated by the polarization of the charge.

[0034] FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an enlarged portion of the cut groove 40 of the bonded body 20. As shown in FIG. 8, the plasma gas is deposited on the surface 2 of the wafer 1 to form a protective film 50 (polymer mask) containing fluorocarbon on the surface of the bonded body 20. The cut groove 40 penetrates the wafer 1 and the bonding material 11, and is a groove formed by cutting a part of the support substrate 10. In this case, the protective film 50 is formed on the surface 2 of the wafer 1 and on the exposed surface 41 of the wafer 1, the bonding material 11, and the support substrate 10 in the cut groove 40. In this embodiment, the plasma etching apparatus 200 utilizes the phenomenon that physical adsorption is facilitated by performing the etching at a low temperature of -20°C to -10°C, and deposits most of the CF polymer on the surface 2 (upper surface) side of the wafer 1, thereby thinning the protective film 50 at the bottom 42 of the cut groove 40.

[0035] (Plasma Etching Step) Next, the chip manufacturing method performs a plasma etching step 1300. The plasma etching step 1300 is a step of dividing the bonded body 20 into a plurality of chips by performing anisotropic plasma etching on the support substrate 10 with plasma gas along the division lines 3 from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1 after the bonding material removing step 1100 and the mask forming step 1200. The anisotropic plasma etching can be performed using a general Bosch process. The plasma etching step 1300 is performed by the plasma etching apparatus 200 described above.

[0036] 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the plasma etching step. As shown in FIG. 9, the plasma etching apparatus 200 performs the following process based on the dicing conditions for planarizing the bottom of the cut groove 40. The plasma etching apparatus 200 lowers the gas ejection head 220 to a predetermined height position, and supplies SF6 gas from the gas supply unit 240 into the chamber 230. In addition, the high-frequency power source 251 applies high-frequency power to the gas ejection head 220 to generate a high-frequency electric field between the gas ejection head 220 and the holding means 210, and converts the SF6 gas into plasma. In parallel with this, the plasma etching apparatus 200 applies a voltage from the bias high-frequency power source 215 to the electrode 212 to generate a dielectric polarization phenomenon between the holding surface 213 of the holding means 210 and the wafer 1, and adsorbs and holds the wafer 1 on the holding surface 213 by an electrostatic adsorption force generated by the polarization of the electric charge.

[0037] Fig. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an enlarged view of the cut groove 40 of the bonded body 20 after plasma etching. As shown in Fig. 10, the SF6 gas plasma hardly etches the region of the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 of the bonded body 20 where the protective film 50 is formed, but etches the region of the bonded body 20 corresponding to the cut groove 40. As a result, the plasma etching step 1300 forms the cut groove 40 in the bonded body 20, penetrating the wafer 1, bonding material 11, and supporting substrate 10 of the bonded body 20.

[0038] (Mask removal step) Next, the chip manufacturing method performs a mask removal step 1400. The mask removal step 1400 is a step of removing the mask from the wafer 1 after the plasma etching step 1300.

[0039] In the mask removal step 1400, an ashing process is performed using a plasma asher device to remove the protective film 50 from the surface 2 of the bonded body 20 after division. The ashing process is a process in which high-energy oxygen plasma is irradiated onto the surface of the protective film 50, which is bonded with the carbon constituting the resin and converted into ashes. In the mask removal step 1400, the protective film 50 is removed from the surfaces of the divided chips 5, and the chip manufacturing method shown in FIG. 5 is completed.

[0040] As a result, a chip manufacturing method is provided, which includes a bonding material removal step 1100 in which a cutting blade 121 is used to cut from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1 of the bonded body 20 along the intended dividing line 3, and the cutting blade 121 is used to remove the bonding material 11, which interferes with plasma etching of the bonded body 20 with plasma-converted gas, to expose the supporting substrate 10; a mask formation step 1200 in which a protective film 50 is coated on the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 to form a mask; a plasma etching step 1300 in which anisotropic plasma etching is performed on the supporting substrate 10 from the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 along the intended dividing line 3 with plasma-converted gas to divide the supporting substrate 10 into a plurality of chips 5; and a mask removal step 1400 in which the mask is removed from the wafer 1.

[0041] Therefore, in the chip manufacturing method, the thickness region of the bonded body 20 up to the bonding material 11, which is unsuitable for plasma etching, is removed by using a cutting blade 121 with a narrow blade width and an appropriately adjusted blade tip length, and then the remaining thickness region of the supporting substrate 10 is plasma etched, so that even the bonded body 20 bonded to the supporting substrate 10 can be divided into chips 5 with high productivity.

[0042] For example, when the bonded body 20 is a bonded MEMS device and includes a bonding material 11 that is difficult to etch with plasma, the thickness of the bonded body 20 is relatively thick, but the chip size is small, so there is a need to manufacture the chip 5 using a cutting blade 121 with a narrow cutting width. In contrast, the chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment removes the bonding material 11 with the cutting blade 121 and plasma etches the remaining thickness region, thereby improving the productivity of the chip 5 manufactured from the bonded body 20 in which the bonding material 11 (functional film) cannot be broken through by plasma etching alone.

[0043] Furthermore, in the chip manufacturing method, when manufacturing chips 5 from the bonded body 20, a cutting blade 21 with a blade width of 20 μm or less can be used. Since the chip manufacturing method according to the present embodiment can use the processes of cutting and plasma etching using the cutting blade 21, it is not necessary to lengthen the cutting edge of the cutting blade of the cutting blade 21, and a short blade extension is sufficient, so that a cutting blade with a thin blade width can be used. As a result, the chip manufacturing method can narrow the division lines 3 in the bonded body 20, so that the number of device chips manufactured from one bonded body 20 (wafer 1) can be increased. In other words, the chip manufacturing method can meet the need to narrow the width of the division lines 3 in the bonded body 20 as much as possible.

[0044] An example of the chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment has been described above. Note that the above configuration described with reference to Figures 1 to 10 is merely an example, and the chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment is not limited to this example. The chip manufacturing method according to the embodiment can be flexibly modified according to specifications and operations.

[0045] (Modification of chip manufacturing method) Fig. 11 is a flow chart showing a modified example of the chip manufacturing method. As shown in Fig. 11, the chip manufacturing method may reverse the order of performing the bonding material removal step 1100 and the mask formation step 1200 among the above-mentioned bonding material removal step 1100, mask formation step 1200, plasma etching step 1300, and mask removal step 1400. In other words, the chip manufacturing method may be configured to perform the steps in the order of the mask formation step 1200, bonding material removal step 1100, plasma etching step 1300, and mask removal step 1400.

[0046] First, the chip manufacturing method executes a mask formation step 1200. The mask formation step 1200 is a step of forming a water-resistant mask by coating a water-resistant protective film 50 such as photoresist before the bonding material removal step 1100. In the mask formation step 1200, the protective film 50 is formed on the surface of the bonded body 20 by depositing the protective film 50 on the entire surface 2 of the wafer 1 by, for example, a coating method using a spin coater.

[0047] Next, the chip manufacturing method executes a bonding material removing step 1100. In the bonding material removing step 1100, a cutting blade 121 is used to cut the bonded body 20 having the protective film 50 formed thereon from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1 along the intended dividing line 3, and the bonding material 11 that becomes an obstacle when the bonded body 20 is plasma-etched with a plasma gas is removed by the cutting blade 121 to expose the supporting substrate 10.

[0048] Next, the chip manufacturing method performs a plasma etching step 1300. In the plasma etching step 1300, after the mask formation step 1200 and the bonding material removal step 1100, anisotropic plasma etching is performed on the support substrate 10 with plasmatized gas along the intended division lines 3 from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1, thereby dividing the bonded body 20 into a plurality of chips.

[0049] Next, the chip manufacturing method performs a mask removal step 1400. The mask removal step 1400 removes the mask from the wafer 1 after the plasma etching step 1300. When the protective film 50 is removed from the surfaces of the multiple chips 5, the chip manufacturing method shown in FIG. 11 ends.

[0050] As a result, a modified chip manufacturing method is provided, which includes a mask formation step 1200 in which a mask is formed by covering the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 with a protective film 50; a bonding material removal step 1100 in which a cutting blade 121 is used to cut into the bonded body 20 from the front surface 2 side of the wafer 1 along the intended dividing line 3, and the cutting blade 121 is used to remove the bonding material 11 that interferes with plasma etching of the bonded body 20 with plasmaized gas, to expose the supporting substrate 10; a plasma etching step 1300 in which anisotropic plasma etching is performed on the supporting substrate 10 from the front surface 2 of the wafer 1 along the intended dividing line 3 with plasmaized gas, thereby dividing the supporting substrate 10 into a plurality of chips 5; and a mask removal step 1400 in which the mask is removed from the wafer 1.

[0051] Therefore, in a modified chip manufacturing method, the thickness region of the bonded body 20 up to the bonding material 11, which is unsuitable for plasma etching, is removed by using a cutting blade 121 with a narrow blade width and an appropriately adjusted blade tip length, and then the remaining thickness region of the supporting substrate 10 is plasma etched, so that even the bonded body 20 bonded to the supporting substrate 10 can be divided into chips 5 with high productivity.

[0052] In the above-described embodiment, the bonded body 20 is configured to form the devices 4 on the wafer 1, but is not limited thereto. For example, the bonded body 20 may be configured to form the devices 4 on the support substrate 10. [Explanation of symbols]

[0053] 1 wafer 2 surface 3. Planned division line 4 Devices 5 Chips 6 Outer periphery 7 Bridge Section 10 Support substrate 11 Bonding material 20 zygote 40 Cutting groove 41 Exposed surface 42 Bottom 50 Protective film 100 Processing equipment 110 Holding table 111 Frame 112 Adsorption part 113 Holding surface 120 Processing Unit 121 Cutting blade 200 Plasma Etching Equipment 210 Holding means 220 Gas ejection head 230 Chamber 1100 Bonding material removal step 1200 mask formation steps 1300 Plasma Etching Steps 1400 mask removal steps

Claims

1. A chip manufacturing method for manufacturing a plurality of chips by dividing a bonded body, in which a back surface of a wafer is bonded to a support substrate by a bonding material, along the planned dividing lines, the bonded body comprising a plurality of planned dividing lines set in a grid pattern on a front surface of the wafer, the back surface of the bonded body being bonded to a support substrate by a bonding material, the bonded body comprising: a bonding material removing step of cutting the bonded body from the front surface side of the wafer along the intended division line with a cutting blade, and removing the bonding material, which becomes an obstacle when the bonded body is plasma-etched with a plasma gas, with the cutting blade to expose the support substrate; a mask forming step of forming a mask by coating the front surface of the wafer with a protective film before or after the bonding material removing step; a plasma etching step of dividing the bonded body into a plurality of chips by performing anisotropic plasma etching on the support substrate along the division lines from the front surface side of the wafer using the plasmatized gas after the bonding material removing step and the mask forming step; a mask removal step after the plasma etching step of removing the mask from the wafer; A chip manufacturing method comprising:

2. 2. The chip manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the mask forming step forms the mask by covering the water-resistant protective film before the bonding material removing step.

3. 2. The chip manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the mask forming step forms the mask by coating the protective film containing fluorocarbon.

4. 4. The chip manufacturing method according to claim 3, wherein the mask forming step covers the protective film at a chamber room temperature of -5° C. to -30° C. after the bonding material removing step.

5. 2. The chip manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the wafer or the supporting substrate is provided with a MEMS device in an area defined by the plurality of planned dividing lines.

6. 2. The method for producing chips according to claim 1, wherein the cutting blade has a cutting edge width of 20 μm or less.

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