Claims
- 1. A method for manufacturing die from a sapphire substrate, comprising;
mounting the sapphire substrate on a stage, the sapphire substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, the bottom surface facing the stage; coupling laser energy having a wavelength below about 560 nanometers, directly into the top surface of the sapphire substrate by absorption sufficient to induce ablation of sapphire at the top surface; and causing the laser energy to impact the sapphire substrate in a scribe pattern to cut scribe lines in the sapphire substrate.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes directing pulses of laser energy at a surface of the sapphire substrate, the pulses having an energy density, a spot size, a repetition rate and a pulse duration inducing non-linear absorption of the laser energy by the sapphire substrate.
- 3. The method of claim 1, including using a solid state laser to generate said laser energy.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said wavelength is about 355 nanometers.
- 5. The method of claim 1, including using a Nd-doped solid state laser having a primary laser wavelength to generate said laser energy, and said wavelength of said laser energy is a fourth harmonic wavelength of said primary laser wavelength.
- 6. The method of claim 1, including separating die defined by the scribe pattern from the sapphire substrate.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes causing delivering a sequence of overlapping pulses of laser energy to the sapphire substrate.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the wavelength is between about 150 and 560 nanometers.
- 9. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes causing delivering a sequence of overlapping pulses of laser energy to the sapphire substrate with a repetition rate between about 10 kHz and 50 kHz.
- 10. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes causing delivering a sequence of overlapping pulses of laser energy to the sapphire substrate with a pulse duration between about 10 and 30 nanoseconds, and a spot size between about 5 and 25 microns.
- 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the sapphire substrate has a thickness, and the scribe lines are cut to a depth of more than about one half said thickness.
- 12. The method of claim 1, including:
during said coupling, detecting edges of the sapphire substrate, and in response to detected edges, preventing said laser energy from being directed off of the substrate.
- 13. The method of claim 1, including:
placing the substrate on an adhesive tape prior to said coupling; and preventing said laser energy from directly impacting the adhesive tape.
- 14. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes generating pulses of laser energy using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.
- 15. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes generating pulses of laser energy using a Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser.
- 16. The method of claim 1, wherein said coupling includes generating pulses of laser energy using a diode pumped, Q-switched solid state laser.
- 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling includes providing laser energy with a spot size on the surface of the sapphire substrate between 5 and 15 microns.
- 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate has an active surface and a back side, and including placing the active surface of the substrate on an adhesive tape, and mounting the substrate on the stage to couple the laser energy into the back side of the substrate.
- 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate has an active surface and a back side, and including coupling the laser energy into the back side.
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
[0001] This application is a continuation of pending application Ser. No. 10/208,484 entitled Scribing Sapphire Substrates with a Solid State UV Laser filed Jul. 30, 2002, which application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/387,381 entitled Scribing Sapphire Substrates With a Solid State UV Laser, filed Jun. 10, 2002. This application is related to application Ser. No. 10/364,587 filed Feb. 11, 2003 entitled Scribing Sapphire Substrates With a Solid State UV Laser.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60387381 |
Jun 2002 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10208484 |
Jul 2002 |
US |
Child |
10384439 |
Mar 2003 |
US |