Patent Application
20130217310
The present invention relates to a wafer processing equipment and, more particularly to a wafer processing equipment with dual functions of cutting and grinding, whereby the processing wheel thereof can be selected to be a cutting wheel or a grinding wheel so as to meet the manufacturing demands.
The manufacturing process for integrated circuits or chips is complicated, which involves many processing steps. The process begins with manufacturing a silicon crystal ingot by using a crystal puller for growing the ingot, which is a single crystal structure being started from a perfect silicon crystal seed with supply of a highly refined silicon heated in the furnace of the puller. Thereafter, the ingot is finely sliced into blank wafers, which then goes through a series of processing steps to create patterned wafers. Finally, the patterned wafers are processed with packaging, the process of which involves dicing or cutting, wire bonding, molding, and inspection. In the dicing or cutting step, each patterned wafer is cut into a plurality of dies.
For reducing the cost of manufacturing chips and the amount of waste wafers, the industry for recycling waste wafers has been gradually developed, in which the waste wafers can be reclaimed and processed. The process may include grinding operations to allow each die cut from the waste wafer to meet the thickness requirement of a specification, so that the recycling industry should purchase a grinding equipment to perform the grinding operations in addition to a cutting equipment. As such, the cost of reclaiming the waste wafers will increase. Also, the grinding equipment will occupy additional space in the recycling plant. Thus, there is a need to provide a wafer processing equipment with dual functions of cutting and grinding to mitigate the above disadvantages.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a wafer processing equipment for use in operations of cutting and grinding wafers, which comprises a driving device and at least one processing wheel. The driving device has a spindle extending therefrom, which can be fitted with a locking member. The processing wheel is coupled to the spindle of the driving device. The processing wheel defines a through hole at a center thereof, whereby the spindle of the driving device can be inserted through the through hole of the processing wheel to be fitted with the locking member, so that the processing wheel can be securely coupled to the spindle. The processing wheel can be selected to be a cutting wheel or a grinding wheel, which depends on the requirement of a specification. As such, only one set of wafer processing equipment is adequate in performing both of cutting and grinding operations, thereby reducing the working space required for reclaiming wafers and lowering the manufacturing cost.
In use, the locking member is simply disassembled from the spindle; then, a processing wheel, either a cutting wheel or a grinding wheel, is selected to be fitted to the spindle; and finally, the locking member is secured to the spindle, so that the processing disk can be securely coupled to the spindle. As such, the present invention allows the processing wheel to be quickly changed to meet the manufacturing demands.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
To allow the features, advantages, and effects of the present invention to be fully understood, embodiments together with the accompanying drawings are taken as examples to illustrate the present invention in the following. However, they are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Referring to
The driving device 1 is adapted to be mounted on a preset working machine (not shown), the driving device 1 having a spindle 11 extending therefrom, which can be fitted with a locking member 12.
The processing wheel 2 can be securely coupled to the spindle 11 of the driving device 1, wherein the processing wheel 2 defines a through hole 21 at a center thereof. In use, the processing wheel 2 can be selected to be a cutting wheel (see
Furthermore, the wafer processing equipment may further comprise a cooling device 4 adapted to be mounted on the working machine (not shown). The cooling device 4 is provided with an inlet 41 and an outlet 42, wherein the outlet 42 is located adjacent to the processing wheel 2. The inlet 41 is adapted to be connected to a liquid source (not shown), so that liquid from the liquid source can flow into the inlet 41 and flow out of the outlet 42, wherein liquid from the liquid source is served as a coolant.
Therefore, the spindle 11 of the driving device 1 can be inserted through the through hole 21 of the processing wheel 2. The locking member 12 can be fitted to the spindle 11, toward the processing wheel 2, so as to clamp the processing wheel 2, so that the processing wheel 2 can be securely coupled to the spindle 11. As an example, the spindle 11 can be provided with external threads while the locking member 12 can be provided with internal threads, whereby the locking member 12 can be threadedly coupled to the spindle 11.
As shown in
The outlet 42 is located adjacent to the processing wheel 2. When the wafer 5 is performing a cutting or grinding operation, liquid flowing out of the outlet 42 can be used as a coolant to prevent the wafer 5 from overheating.
Turning now to
As described above, the cooling device 4 can be mounted on the working machine to cool the wafer when cutting or grinding operations are being performed (see
Although the present invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure is made by way of example only and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention hereinafter claimed.
