1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of dicing a semiconductor substrate into, for example, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) chips.
2. Description of the Related Art
MEMS chips are generally diced from a silicon wafer by a dicing apparatus with a saw that cuts along a predetermined grid of scribe lines. The silicon wafer, which may be only a few hundred micrometers (μm) thick, is first taped with UV tape (a type of adhesive tape that loses adhesion on exposure to ultraviolet light). The dicing saw has a thin blade coated with diamond particles, which are harder than silicon. The diamond particles are held in a metal bonding material electro-deposited on the surface of the blade.
In an alternate method for use in dicing MEMS chips formed in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, the supporting substrate layer of the wafer is etched away below the scribe lines; then the overlying oxide insulator film and silicon active layer are cut along the scribe lines with a laser beam, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-62002 (FIGS. 3 and 4 on pages 6 to 7).
In the general dicing method, the cutting speed and direction (up-cut or down-cut) are optimized to prevent chipping of the silicon material, and the blade is dressed at regular intervals, before significant blade wear develops, so that the diamond particles will not fall out and clog the kerf, where they can cause severe chipping.
These measures are, however, inadequate to prevent chipping in the dicing of wafers with specific surface orientations often required for MEMS products. For example, chipping has been found to occur in the dicing of bonded SOI wafers having a (100) silicon supporting layer several hundred micrometers thick and a (110) silicon active layer several micrometers thick, in which the crystal lattice orientations at the surfaces of the active layer and the supporting layer differ by 45 degrees. In this configuration, the thin silicon active layer is especially prone to chipping during dicing.
In a piezoresistive MEMS acceleration sensor of the type partly shown in
A problem with the laser dicing method described above is that the MEMS design is constrained by the need to etch trenches in the supporting substrate layer below the scribe lines during the process of forming the MEMS structure.
A general object of the present invention is to reduce defects caused by dicing of SOI wafers.
A more particular object is to reduce malfunctions of MEMS devices due to chipping caused by dicing cuts.
The invention provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device in an SOI wafer having a silicon active layer, a buried oxide layer, and a supporting substrate layer. The method includes:
selectively etching the silicon active layer to form a trench having a predetermined width surrounding a scribe line; and
cutting the supporting substrate layer along the scribe line by use of a dicing apparatus having a blade width smaller than the predetermined width.
These steps ensure that during the dicing cut, the dicing blade does not make contact with the silicon active layer, which is particularly vulnerable to chipping. The invention accordingly reduces the occurrence of chipping and the occurrence of consequent malfunctions.
In the attached drawings:
An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawings, in which like elements are indicated by like reference characters.
A method of manufacturing the piezoresistive acceleration sensor shown in
Referring to
The piezoresistive acceleration sensor 1 in
As shown in
The housing 21 is a rectangular enclosure that rests on the glass base 11. The mass 22 consists of a central mass 22b and four substantially rectangular outer masses 22a that extend in four directions from the corners of the central mass 22b. The mass 22 and glass base 11 are separated by a uniform space 61.
The peripheral frame 41 has a generally rectangular shape, matching the shape of the housing 21, from which the peripheral frame 41 is separated by the oxide film 31, except that the peripheral frame 41 also has a stopper 41a at each of its four corners. The four beams 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d (
Each outer mass 22a is separated from its neighboring outer masses 22a, the housing 21, the glass base 11, and the stopper 41a by respective spaces 62, 64, 61, and 65. The outer mass attachment sections 43a are separated from the beams 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d, the peripheral frame 41, and stopper 41a by spaces 62, 64, and 66.
As the four regions 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d are mutually symmetrical with respect to the pair of orthogonal lines a, b, descriptions of regions other than region 1a will be omitted. In each region, the outer mass 22a is held by the outer mass attachment section 43a. Accordingly, the mass 22 is secured to the mass attachment section 43 through the oxide film 32 and held in a hollow space by the four beams 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d so that it can move freely.
The operation of the piezoresistive acceleration sensor 1 will now be described.
When the piezoresistive acceleration sensor 1 is accelerated, the mass 22 responds by changing position, thereby distorting the beams 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d. As a result, the resistance values of the piezoelectric resistive elements 51 disposed in the beams 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d change. The change in the resistance value of each piezoelectric resistive element 51 is detected by a bridge circuit configured with wiring not shown in the drawings. The acceleration applied to the piezoresistive acceleration sensor 1 is derived from the resulting resistance data.
If a silicon flake that has chipped off during dicing as described above is present in the space 65 between the outer mass 22a and the stopper 41a, as shown in
Next, a novel method of dicing the SOI wafer 100 into individual MEMS structures, in this case a plurality of piezoresistive acceleration sensors 1, will be described.
Before dicing, the housings 21, oxide films 31, and peripheral frames 41 in the adjacent piezoresistive acceleration sensors 1 are identical layers extending continuously across the scribe line c, as shown in
A feature of the present invention is that the peripheral frames 41 are separated by etching a trench with a width A exceeding the width of the dicing zone 150. If necessary, the trench may extend through the oxide film 31, as shown. A piezoresistive acceleration sensor manufactured by the invented method is accordingly characterized by a housing 21 that extends outwardly slightly beyond the edges of the peripheral frame 41, or slightly beyond the edges of the peripheral frame 41 and oxide film 31.
To create a trench of width A, in a novel wafer processing sequence preceding the dicing cut, the wafer is coated with a layer of photoresist material which is then patterned to remove the photoresist material from zones around the scribe lines (e.g., line c in
Next, as shown in
Next, the resist pattern 160 is ashed away as shown in
The steps illustrated in
Referring to
B=70 μm+α
where α is due to wobble etc. The value of α is normally much less than the blade width, so to a close approximation,
B≈70 μm.
If the trench width A is 120 μm, for example, then the trench width A exceeds the width B of the dicing cut by approximately 50 μm
A=120 μm≈B+50 μm
and the distance between each side of the blade and the silicon active layer 101 is approximately 25 μm.
As described above, this embodiment removes the silicon active layer of the SOI substrate by etching trenches surrounding the scribe lines, the trench width being greater than the width of the blade of the dicing apparatus. When the substrate is diced, the dicing blade follows the scribe lines and does make contact with the silicon active layer. The occurrence of chipping is thereby reduced even if the silicon active layer has a surface orientation that is particularly prone to chipping.
By reducing the occurrence of chipping as described above, this dicing method avoids malfunctions caused by chipped flakes of silicon that lodge in the internal spaces of the MEMS device, e.g., in the space 65 between the mass 22 and stopper 41a shown in
The etching process in which the active layer of the SOI substrate is removed by selectively etching a trench centered on the scribe line can be performed concurrently with an etching process that forms electrical or mechanical components of the MEMS chips. For example, when the active layer is etched to form the spaces 62, 64, 66, the active layer can simultaneously be etched to form trenches centered on the scribe lines. That is, the spaces 62, 64, 66 and the trenches can be formed in the same etching step. The invention can therefore be practiced without additional fabrication steps, and can thus be expected to improve production yields without reducing the efficiency of the production process or significantly increasing its cost.
In the embodiment above, an SOI substrate consisting of a (110) silicon active layer rotated by 45 degrees with respect to a (100) supporting substrate layer is used, but the invention is not limited to this type of substrate; a different type of SOI substrate may be used.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that further variations are possible within the scope of the invention, which is defined in the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2007-063373 | Mar 2007 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20040072386 | Tanabe et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
20080191318 | Su et al. | Aug 2008 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2001-308036 | Nov 2001 | JP |
2002-16264 | Jan 2002 | JP |
2005-349486 | Dec 2005 | JP |
2006-29827 | Feb 2006 | JP |
2006-32716 | Feb 2006 | JP |
2006-062002 | Mar 2006 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20080227234 A1 | Sep 2008 | US |