The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus that irradiates a workpiece with a laser beam.
A wafer including multiple light emitting elements such as light emitting diodes (LED) or semiconductor lasers (LD: Laser Diode) includes an optical device layer formed of an n-type semiconductor layer and a p-type semiconductor layer composed of GaN, InGaP, AlGaN, or the like over the upper surface of an epitaxy substrate such as a sapphire substrate or SiC substrate with the interposition of a buffer layer, and is formed through marking out light emitting devices by multiple planned dividing lines that intersect.
Further, a technique is implemented in which a relocation substrate is disposed on the optical device layer side and irradiation with a laser beam with a wavelength having transmissibility with respect to the epitaxy substrate and having absorbability with respect to the buffer layer is executed from the epitaxy substrate side to break the buffer layer in the whole of the wafer and transfer the optical device layer from the epitaxy substrate to the relocation substrate (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2013-229336).
In the technique described in the above-described Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2013-229336, to efficiently break the buffer layer, the laser beam emitted by a laser oscillator needs to be moved at high speed by a galvano scanner. However, reciprocation operation is necessary to move the laser beam by the galvano scanner, and there is a problem that a load of an inertial force generated in the galvano scanner at turnarounds between processing of a forward path and processing of a return path lowers the lifetime of the galvano scanner.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a laser processing apparatus that can resolve a problem that the lifetime of a galvano scanner lowers due to a load of an inertial force generated in the galvano scanner.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser processing apparatus configured to include a chuck table having a holding surface that holds a workpiece and is defined by an X-axis direction and a Y-axis direction and a laser beam irradiation unit that irradiates the workpiece held by the chuck table with a laser beam. The laser beam irradiation unit includes a laser oscillator that oscillates the laser beam, an X-axis galvano scanner that induces the laser beam oscillated by the laser oscillator in the X-axis direction, a Y-axis galvano scanner that induces the laser beam in the Y-axis direction, and a controller that controls the X-axis galvano scanner and the Y-axis galvano scanner. The controller includes a processing region storing section that stores the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of processing regions in which the workpiece held by the chuck table is processed and an order-of-processing storing section that stores setting of the order of processing of the processing region to be processed on a forward path through irradiation with the laser beam and the processing region of a return path to be subsequently processed. In the setting of the order of processing, the Y-coordinate of the return path is set in such a manner that a load generated in the X-axis galvano scanner that converts the movement direction of the laser beam is alleviated when processing is executed on the forward path in the X-axis direction by using the X-axis galvano scanner and subsequently processing is executed on the return path in the X-axis direction.
Preferably, in the setting of the order of processing, when the order of processing of the processing region of the return path is set, the processing region of the return path that is not adjacent to the processing region of the forward path to be processed immediately previously in the Y-axis direction is set. Preferably, in the setting of the order of processing, the processing region corresponding to the Y-coordinate of one endmost part is set as the first processing region in which the workpiece held by the chuck table is processed on the forward path, the processing region corresponding to the Y-coordinate of the other endmost part is set as the first processing region to be processed on the return path, the processing region adjacent to the inside of the processing region at the one endmost part in the Y-axis direction is set as the processing region to be processed on the next forward path, and the processing region adjacent to the inside of the processing region at the other endmost part in the Y-axis direction is set as the processing region to be processed on the next return path. Further, the processing regions that sequentially correspond to the inside of the workpiece in the Y-axis direction are set as the processing regions of the forward path and the processing regions of the return path.
Preferably, in the setting of the order of processing, the processing region corresponding to the Y-coordinate of one endmost part is set as the first processing region in which the workpiece held by the chuck table is processed on the forward path, the processing region corresponding to the Y-coordinate of a central part is set as the first processing region to be processed on the return path, the processing region adjacent to the inside of the processing region at the one endmost part in the Y-axis direction is set as the processing region to be processed on the next forward path, and the processing region adjacent to the other end part side of the processing region at the central part in the Y-axis direction is set as the processing region to be processed on the next return path. Further, the processing regions that sequentially correspond to the inside of the workpiece in the Y-axis direction are set as the processing regions of the forward path, and the processing regions that sequentially correspond to the other end part side of the workpiece are set as the processing regions of the return path.
According to the laser processing apparatus of the present invention, the problem that the lifetime of the X-axis galvano scanner lowers due to a load of an inertial force generated in the X-axis galvano scanner is resolved.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention and the manner of realizing them will become more apparent, and the invention itself will best be understood from a study of the following description and appended claims with reference to the attached drawings showing a preferred embodiment of the invention.
A laser processing apparatus of an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First, a workpiece to be processed by the laser processing apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to
The optical device layer 16 is composed of gallium nitride (GaN), for example. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the material of the optical device layer 16 can be selected from well-known semiconductors such as gallium phosphide (GaP) and indium arsenide (InAs). The buffer layer 17 is formed by the same kind of material as the above-described optical device layer 16. The relocation substrate 20 is formed from molybdenum, copper, silicon, or the like, for example, and is disposed to face the optical device layer 16 with the interposition of a joining metal layer selected from gold, platinum, chromium, indium, palladium, and so forth. In the wafer 10, a notch 10c that indicates the crystal orientation of the sapphire substrate that configures the epitaxy substrate 18 is formed.
After the above-described two-layer substrate W is prepared, as illustrated in
In
The laser processing apparatus 1 further includes a movement mechanism 4 including an X-axis feed mechanism 41 that moves the chuck table 35 in the X-axis direction and a Y-axis feed mechanism 42 that moves the chuck table 35 in the Y-axis direction, a frame body 5 including a vertical wall part 5a erected on a lateral side of the movement mechanism 4 on the base 2 and a horizontal wall part 5b extending in the horizontal direction from an upper end part of the vertical wall part 5a, an imaging unit 7 that images the two-layer substrate W held by the chuck table 35 and executes alignment, and a controller 100. An input unit, a display unit, and so forth that are not illustrated are connected to the controller 100.
As illustrated in
The X-axis feed mechanism 41 converts rotational motion of a motor 43 to linear motion through a ball screw 44 and transmits the linear motion to the X-axis direction movable plate 31 to move the X-axis direction movable plate 31 in the X-axis direction along a pair of guide rails 2a disposed along the X-axis direction on the base 2. The Y-axis feed mechanism 42 converts rotational motion of a motor 45 to linear motion through a ball screw 46 and transmits the linear motion to the Y-axis direction movable plate 32 to move the Y-axis direction movable plate 32 in the Y-axis direction along a pair of guide rails 31a disposed along the Y-axis direction on the X-axis direction movable plate 31.
An optical system that configures the above-described laser beam irradiation unit 6 and the imaging unit 7 are housed inside the horizontal wall part 5b of the frame body 5. A light collector 61 that configures part of the laser beam irradiation unit 6 and irradiates the two-layer substrate W with a laser beam LB is disposed on the lower surface side of a tip part of the horizontal wall part 5b.
In
The controller 100 is configured by a computer and includes a central processing unit (CPU) that executes calculation processing in accordance with a control program, a read only memory (ROM) that stores the control program and so forth, a readable-writable random access memory (RAM) for temporarily storing a calculation result and so forth, an input interface, and an output interface. The laser beam irradiation unit 6 (X-axis galvano scanner 64 and Y-axis galvano scanner 65), the imaging unit 7, the X-axis feed mechanism 41, the Y-axis feed mechanism 42, and so forth are connected to the controller 100 and are controlled.
When the two-layer substrate W that is a workpiece is irradiated with the laser beam LB emitted by the laser oscillator 62 by the above-described laser beam irradiation unit 6, the chuck table 35 is positioned directly under the light collector 61 by controlling the above-described X-axis feed mechanism 41 and Y-axis feed mechanism 42, and the X-axis galvano scanner 64 and the Y-axis galvano scanner 65 are controlled by the controller 100. This makes it possible to precisely position the laser beam LB to a desired X-coordinate/Y-coordinate position on the two-layer substrate W held by the chuck table 35 and execute irradiation.
As illustrated in
In the processing region storing section 110, processing region information 112 relating to the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of processing regions R1 to Rn in which laser processing to break the buffer layer 17 through irradiation of the two-layer substrate W with the laser beam LB is executed, like one illustrated on the right side of
The order-of-processing storing section 120 is what stores the order of processing of the processing region to be processed on a forward path through irradiation with the laser beam LB and the processing region of a return path to be subsequently processed regarding the respective processing regions R1 to Rn stored in the processing region storing section 110. For example, order-of-processing information 122 or order-of-processing information 124 like one illustrated on the lower side of
First, description will be made about the order-of-processing information 122 that illustrates one example relating to setting of the order of processing of the processing regions R1 to Rn. The first processing region in which the two-layer substrate W held by the chuck table 35 of the holding unit 3 is processed on the forward path is the processing region R1 corresponding to the Y-coordinate of the above-described one endmost part, and the first processing region to be processed on the return path is the processing region Rn corresponding to the Y-coordinate of the above-described other endmost part. At this time, in the order-of-processing information 122, the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end P1 of irradiation with the laser beam LB in the processing region R1 to be processed first on the forward path and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the terminal end P2 thereof are set, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end P3 of irradiation with the laser beam LB in the processing region Rn to be processed first on the return path and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the terminal end P4 thereof are set. Further, the processing region to be processed on the next forward path is the processing region R2 adjacent to the inside (direction indicated by an arrow YA) of the processing region R1 at the one endmost part in the Y-axis direction, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of a start end P5 and a terminal end P6 of irradiation with the laser beam LB are set. The processing region to be processed on the next return path is the processing region Rn−1 adjacent to the inside (direction indicated by an arrow YB) of the processing region Rn at the other endmost part in the Y-axis direction, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of a start end P7 and a terminal end P8 of irradiation with the laser beam LB are set. As the processing regions of the forward path and the processing regions of the return path to be processed subsequently to them, the processing regions that sequentially correspond to the inside (direction indicated by the arrow YA and direction indicated by the arrow YB) of the two-layer substrate W in the Y-axis direction are set, and information regarding the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end and the terminal end to identify whether the processing path is the forward path or the return path and identify the order of processing is set and stored regarding all processing regions R1 to Rn.
Moreover, the order-of-processing information 124 that is another embodiment of the order-of-processing information stored in the order-of-processing storing section 120 will be described. In the order-of-processing information 124, the first processing region in which the two-layer substrate W held by the chuck table 35 of the holding unit 3 is processed with scanning with the laser beam LB on the forward path indicated by the arrow XA is the above-described processing region R1 corresponding to the Y-coordinate of the one endmost part, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end P1 and the terminal end P2 are set. The first processing region to be processed in the direction of the return path indicated by the arrow XB is the processing region Rn-m corresponding to the Y-coordinate of a central part of the two-layer substrate W, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of a start end P9 and a terminal end P10 are set. Further, the processing region to be processed on the next forward path is the processing region R2 adjacent to the inside (direction indicated by the arrow YA) of the processing region R1 at the one endmost part in the Y-axis direction, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end P5 and the terminal end P6 of irradiation and scanning with the laser beam LB are set. The processing region to be processed on the next return path is the processing region Rn-m+1 adjacent to the other endmost part side (direction indicated by an arrow YC) of the processing region Rn-m at the central part in the Y-axis direction, and the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of a start end P11 and a terminal end P12 are set. As the processing regions of the forward path to be processed subsequently to them, the processing regions (R3 . . . ) that sequentially correspond to the inside (direction indicated by the arrow YA) of the two-layer substrate W are set. As the processing regions of the return path, the processing regions (Rn-m+2 . . . ) that sequentially correspond to the other end side of the workpiece are set. In addition, regarding all processing regions R1 to Rn, information regarding the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end and the terminal end to identify whether the processing path is the forward path or the return path and identify the order of processing is set and stored. In this manner, the X-coordinate and Y-coordinate of the start end and the terminal end to identify the order of processing are set and stored regarding all processing regions R1 to Rn.
The laser processing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment has a configuration that is substantially as described above. Laser processing executed with use of the laser processing apparatus 1 will be described below. The following description will be made on the basis of the assumption that the order-of-processing information stored in the above-described order-of-processing storing section 120 is the order-of-processing information 122 illustrated in
After the two-layer substrate W described on the basis of
On the basis of the information detected by the imaging unit 7, the chuck table 35 is moved to a position directly under the light collector 61 of the laser beam irradiation unit 6, and the notch 10c indicating the crystal orientation of the wafer 10 is positioned to the one end part side in the Y-axis direction.
After the two-layer substrate W is moved to the position directly under the light collector 61 as described above, as illustrated in
On the basis of information regarding the order-of-processing information 122 of the order-of-processing storing section 120, irradiation with the laser beam LB is executed from the side of the epitaxy substrate 18 and scanning with the laser beam LB is executed in a predetermined direction (in
In the laser processing executed by the laser processing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the following laser processing conditions are set, for example.
Wavelength: 266 nm
Repetition frequency: 200 kHz
Average output power: 0.3 W
Pulse width: 10 ns
Spot diameter: 30 μm
As is understood from
Although laser processing is executed on the basis of the order-of-processing information 122 illustrated in
The workpiece is the two-layer substrate W in the laser processing apparatus 1 of the above-described embodiment, and processing of breaking the buffer layer 17 in the whole of the two-layer substrate W and separating the epitaxy substrate 18 from the optical device layer 16 to transfer the optical device layer 16 to the side of the relocation substrate 20 is executed by using the laser processing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, with use of the laser processing apparatus 1 configured on the basis of the present invention, laser processing may be executed in which a wafer on which multiple devices are formed on a front surface in such a manner as to be marked out by multiple planned dividing lines that intersect is irradiated with a laser beam with a wavelength having absorbability with respect to the wafer along the planned dividing lines to execute ablation processing and divide the wafer into individual device chips. Further, laser processing may be executed in which, for a wafer on which multiple devices are formed on a front surface in such a manner as to be marked out by multiple planned dividing lines that intersect, the internal of the planned dividing line is irradiated with the focal point of a laser beam with a wavelength having transmissibility with respect to the wafer along the planned dividing lines to form a modified layer and form the origin of dividing for dividing the wafer into individual device chips.
The present invention is not limited to the details of the above described preferred embodiment. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and all changes and modifications as fall within the equivalence of the scope of the claims are therefore to be embraced by the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2022-103417 | Jun 2022 | JP | national |