JP2006007367A - Protective tape cutting method and protective tape cutting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly carry out angle adjustment of a cutter blade for changing/adjusting a crossing angle of the cutter blade to a surface of a semiconductor wafer in the wafer diameter direction in a method for cutting out a protective tape stuck to the surface of the semiconductor along an outer shape of the wafer by travelling the cutter blade along the periphery of the semiconductor wafer. <P>SOLUTION: The angle of the cutter blade 12 is changed around a cutting site where a blade edge of the cutter blade 12 gets in contact with the protective tape T. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for cutting a protective tape attached to a surface of a semiconductor wafer along the outer shape of the semiconductor wafer by relatively running a cutter blade along the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer.

As the cutting means of the protective tape, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, the protective tape is supplied to the surface of the wafer placed and held on the table, and the sticking roller is moved to move the protective tape to the wafer. Then, with the cutter blade stabbed into the protective tape, the table is rotated to move the cutter blade relatively along the outer periphery of the wafer, and the protective tape is cut along the outer periphery of the wafer. By changing and adjusting the crossing angle of the cutter blade with respect to the wafer surface in the wafer radial direction, the amount of protrusion of the protective tape with respect to the outer peripheral edge of the wafer can be arbitrarily set according to the thickness of the wafer, the chamfering form of the outer peripheral edge of the wafer, etc. What was comprised so that adjustment was possible is known.
JP 2004-25438 A

  In the protective tape cutting means, as a means for changing and adjusting the crossing angle of the cutter blade in the wafer radial direction with respect to the wafer surface, the inclination angle of the cutter unit is changed around a fulcrum set at a high position above the table. Since the adjustment structure is adopted, changing the cutter blade angle changes the vertical position of the cutter blade as a whole, and the cutting position of the protective tape changes. It was necessary to do the adjustment, and it took time for adjustment.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to such a situation, and has as its main object to enable quick adjustment of the angle of the cutter blade.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor wafer protective tape cutting method in which a cutter blade is run along the outer periphery of a semiconductor wafer and a protective tape attached to the surface of the semiconductor wafer is cut out along the outer shape of the semiconductor wafer. In order to change and adjust the crossing angle of the cutter blade with respect to the wafer radial direction, the angle of the cutter blade is changed around the cutting portion where the blade edge of the cutter blade contacts the protective tape.

  According to this, even if the angle adjustment of the cutter blade is performed, the position of the cutting portion where the blade edge of the cutter blade is in contact with the protective tape is not changed, and the angle adjustment of the cutter blade is completed in a short time.

  Therefore, according to the first invention, when adjusting the protrusion amount of the protective tape with respect to the outer peripheral edge of the wafer in accordance with the thickness of the wafer, the chamfering shape of the outer peripheral edge of the wafer, etc., the adjustment is performed in a short time, and the work form is changed. This is effective for shortening the setup time and improving the work efficiency.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a protective tape cutting apparatus for a semiconductor wafer in which a cutter blade is run along the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer and the protective tape attached to the surface of the semiconductor wafer is cut out along the outer shape of the semiconductor wafer. A cutter support member with a cutter blade attached to a support bracket that is driven and swiveled around a concentric longitudinal axis, and an arcuate guide centered at the cutting site where the cutter blade's edge and the protective tape contact each other The mechanism is interposed between the support bracket and the cutter support member, and the cutter support member is supported by the guide mechanism so that the angle can be adjusted and fixed with respect to the support bracket.

  According to the above configuration, the cutter blade can be angle-adjusted around the cutting site by moving and adjusting the cutter support member via the guide mechanism with respect to the support bracket.

  Therefore, according to the second invention, by introducing the arc-shaped guide mechanism, it becomes possible to change and adjust the angle of the cutter blade around the cutting site where a mechanical fulcrum cannot be provided. The cutting method of the protective tape according to the invention can be preferably carried out.

3rd invention is the protective tape cutting device of Claim 2,
The guide mechanism includes an arcuate slide guide groove and an arcuate slide protrusion that is slidably fitted in the arcuate direction, and the concave groove is provided on one of the support bracket and the cutter support member. According to the above configuration, the cutter supporting member is smoothly changed in angle around the cutting portion by fitting the arc-shaped slide guide groove and the arc-shaped slide protrusion. Therefore, a desired guide mechanism can be suitably configured.

  According to the present invention, even if the angle of the cutter blade is adjusted, there is no change in position at the cutting portion where the blade edge of the cutter blade and the protective tape are in contact with each other, so the angle of the cutter blade can be adjusted in a short time. it can.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of the protective tape attaching device. This protective tape affixing device includes a wafer supply / recovery unit 1 loaded with a cassette C containing a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter simply referred to as “wafer”) W, a wafer transfer mechanism 3 having a robot arm 2, an alignment stage. 4. Chuck table 5 on which the wafer W is placed and sucked and held, a tape supply unit 6 for supplying a protective tape T for surface protection toward the wafer W, and a protective tape T with a separator supplied from the tape supply unit 6 The separator s from the separator W, the sticking unit 8 for sticking the protective tape T to the wafer W placed on the chuck table 5 and sucked and held, and the protective tape T attached to the wafer W on the wafer W. A tape cutting mechanism 9 that cuts and cuts along the outer shape, and a peeling unit that peels off the unnecessary tape T ′ after being attached to the wafer W and cut. A knit 10, a tape collecting unit 11 for winding and collecting the unnecessary tape T 'peeled off by the peeling unit 10, and the like are provided, and a specific configuration of each of the structural units and mechanisms will be described below.

  The wafer supply / collection unit 1 can be loaded with two cassettes C in parallel. In each cassette C, a large number of wafers W with the wiring pattern surface facing upward are inserted and stored in multiple stages in a horizontal posture. Yes.

  The robot arm 2 provided in the wafer transfer mechanism 3 is configured to be able to move forward and backward horizontally, and can be driven and swung up and down as a whole. At the tip of the robot arm 2, a horseshoe-shaped vacuum suction type wafer holder 2a is provided, and the wafer holder 2a is inserted into the gap between the wafers W stored in multiple stages in the cassette C. Are sucked and held from the back surface, and the wafer W held by suction is pulled out from the cassette C and conveyed in the order of the alignment stage 4, the chuck table 5, and the wafer supply / recovery unit 1.

  The alignment stage 4 aligns the wafer W loaded and placed by the wafer transport mechanism 3 based on an orientation flat, a notch or the like formed on the outer periphery thereof.

  The chuck table 5 is configured to vacuum-suck the wafer W transferred from the wafer transfer mechanism 3 and placed in a predetermined alignment posture. Further, a cutter running groove 13 is formed on the upper surface of the chuck table 5 for cutting the protective tape T by rotating a cutter blade 12 provided in a tape cutting mechanism 9 described later along the outer shape of the wafer W. ing.

  The tape supply unit 6 is configured to guide the protective tape T with a separator drawn out from the supply bobbin 14 around the guide roller 15 group and guide the protective tape T from which the separator s has been peeled off to the affixing unit 8. The supply bobbin 14 is configured to give an appropriate rotational resistance so that excessive tape feeding is not performed.

  In the separator collection unit 7, the collection bobbin 16 that winds up the separator s peeled from the protective tape T is driven to rotate in the winding direction.

  The affixing unit 8 is provided with an affixing roller 17 that faces forward and is horizontally reciprocated by a slide guide mechanism 18 and a screw feed type driving mechanism (not shown).

  The peeling unit 10 is provided with a peeling roller 19 that is horizontally oriented forward, and is reciprocated horizontally by the slide guide mechanism 18 and a screw feed type driving mechanism (not shown).

  The tape collecting unit 11 is configured so that the collecting bobbin 20 that takes up the unnecessary tape T ′ is driven to rotate in the winding direction.

  The tape cutting mechanism 9 is basically equipped with a pair of support arms 22 arranged in parallel at the lower part of a movable base 21 that can be driven up and down so as to be capable of driving and turning about a longitudinal axis X located on the center of the chuck table 5. At the same time, the cutter blade 12 with the blade tip facing downward is mounted on the cutter unit 23 provided on the free end side of the support arm 22, and the support blade 22 rotates around the longitudinal axis X so that the cutter blade 12 is It is configured to run along the outer periphery of the wafer W and cut out the protective tape T, and its detailed structure is shown in FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the movable base 21 is screwed up and down along the vertical rail 25 by rotating the motor 24 forward and backward, and the vertical end of the movable base 21 is A rotating shaft 26 that is provided so as to be rotatable about an axis X is linked to a motor 27 provided on the movable base 21 by means of two belts 28, and the rotating shaft is operated by the operation of the motor 27. 26 is configured to be rotated at a low speed. As shown in FIG. 3, a support arm 22 is pierced and supported by a lower part of a support member 29 extending downward from the rotation shaft 26 so that horizontal slide adjustment is possible, and the cutter is adjusted by slide adjustment of the support arm 22. The turning radius of the blade 12 can be changed and adjusted in accordance with the wafer diameter.

  A bracket 30 is fixed to the free end portion of the support arm 22, and the cutter unit 23 is mounted and supported on the bracket 30. The cutter unit 23 includes a rotating member 31 that is supported by the bracket 30 so as to be rotatable around the longitudinal axis Y, a vertical wall-shaped support bracket 32 that is coupled to the lower surface of the end of the rotating member 31, and a support bracket 32. The cutter support member 33 is connected to the side surface, the movable bracket 34 is supported on the cutter support member 33 so as to be horizontally slidable, the cutter holder 35 is attached to the movable bracket 34, and the like. In addition, the back of the cutting edge is screw-connected so as to coincide with the longitudinal axis Y.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 4, an operation flange 38 that rotates integrally with the rotation member 31 by engagement of the long hole 36 and the two pins 37 is provided above the rotation member 31. The operation flange 38 is rotated by the air cylinder 39 so that the attitude of the entire cutter unit 23 relative to the support arm 22 around the longitudinal axis Y, that is, the angle of the cutter blade 12 with respect to the traveling direction can be set within a predetermined small range. It is possible to adjust within.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the cutter support member 33 is rotatably connected to the support bracket 32 via a guide mechanism 40. In this guide mechanism 40, a partial arc-shaped slide protrusion 42 projecting from the side surface of the support bracket 32 is fitted into a partial arc-shaped slide guide groove 41 formed on the side surface of the support bracket 32. The cutter support member 33 can be slidably rotated with respect to the support bracket 32 within a predetermined range (for example, 30 °) with the curvature centers of the 41 and the slide protrusions 42 as fulcrums. Then, the center of curvature p of the slide guide groove 41 and the slide protrusion 42 formed in a partial arc shape is set to be located at the tape cutting site A at the cutting edge of the cutter blade 12, and by this slide adjustment, it is set with respect to the wafer surface. The crossing angle α (see FIG. 8) of the cutter blade 12 in the wafer radial direction can be changed and adjusted.

  In addition, a partial arc-shaped long hole 43 having the same curvature is formed on the bottom surface of the concave groove 41, and two bolts 44 inserted into the long hole 43 from the back surface of the support bracket 32 are fastened to the cutter support member 33. Thus, the cutter support member 33 can be fixed at an arbitrary slide position. Further, marks 45 for confirming the slide position are carved on the bottom surface of the concave groove 41 at a predetermined angular pitch (2 ° in this example).

  Further, a tension spring 46 is stretched between the cutter support member 33 and the movable bracket 34 connected and supported so as to be horizontally slidable thereto, and the movable bracket 34 is slidably biased toward the cutter turning center side. .

  Next, a series of basic operations for attaching the protective tape T to the surface of the wafer W using the above-described embodiment apparatus will be described.

  When a sticking command is issued, first, the robot arm 2 in the wafer transfer mechanism 3 is moved toward the cassette C placed and loaded on the wafer supply / recovery unit 1, and the wafer holding unit 2 a is accommodated in the cassette C. The wafer W is inserted into the gap between the wafers, and the wafer W is sucked and held from the back surface (lower surface) by the wafer holding unit 2 a, and the removed wafer W is transferred to the alignment stage 4.

  The wafer W placed on the alignment stage 4 is aligned using a notch formed on the outer periphery of the wafer W, and the aligned wafer W is unloaded again by the robot arm 2 and placed on the chuck table 5. Placed.

  The wafer W placed on the chuck table 5 is sucked and held in a state of being aligned so that the center thereof is on the center of the chuck table 5. At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the affixing unit 8 and the peeling unit 10 are waiting at the left initial position, and the cutter blade 12 of the tape cutting mechanism 9 is waiting at the upper initial position.

  Next, as shown by the phantom line in FIG. 9, the affixing roller 17 of the affixing unit 8 is lowered, and the wafer W is pushed forward (in FIG. 9) while pressing the protective tape T downward with the affixing roller 17. The protective tape T is affixed to the entire surface of the wafer W (see FIG. 10).

  Next, when the affixing unit 8 reaches the end position, the cutter blade 12 that has been waiting upward is lowered and pierced by the protective tape T in the cutter running groove 13 of the chuck table 5 as shown in FIG.

  When the cutter blade 12 is lowered to a predetermined cutting height position and stopped, the support arm 22 is rotated in a predetermined direction. As a result, the cutter blade 12 pivots around the longitudinal axis X and the protective tape T is moved. Cut along the wafer outline. In this case, the cutter blade 12 travels while being pressed against the outer periphery of the wafer W by the slide biasing force of the tension spring 46, and the tape is cut along the outer shape of the wafer W.

  When the tape cutting along the outer periphery of the wafer W is completed, as shown in FIG. 12, the cutter blade 12 is raised to the original standby position, and then the peeling unit 10 is cut and cut on the wafer W while moving forward. The remaining unnecessary tape T ′ is wound up and peeled off.

  When the peeling unit 10 reaches the end position of the peeling operation, the peeling unit 10 and the pasting unit 8 move in the opposite directions and return to the initial position. At this time, the unnecessary tape T ′ is wound around the recovery bobbin 20 and a certain amount of the protective tape T is fed out from the tape supply unit 6.

  When the tape sticking operation is completed, after the suction on the chuck table 5 is released, the wafer W that has been stuck is transferred to the wafer holding part 2a of the robot arm 2 and inserted into the cassette C of the wafer supply / collection part 1. To be recovered.

  Thus, one tape attaching process is completed, and thereafter, the above operations are sequentially repeated.

  The present invention can also be implemented in the following forms.

  (1) To constitute the guide mechanism 40, the support bracket 32 may be provided with the slide protrusion 42, and the cutter support member 33 may be provided with the slide guide groove 41.

  (2) It is also possible to constitute the guide mechanism 40 with a slide guide rod that is curved in an arc shape around the cutting portion of the cutter blade 12 and a member that is externally fitted and slidable along the rod.

It is a perspective view which shows the whole protective tape sticking apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a front view of a tape cutting mechanism. It is a perspective view of the principal part of a tape cutting mechanism. It is a top view of the principal part of a tape cutting mechanism. It is a side view of the principal part of a tape cutting mechanism. It is a front view of the principal part of a guide mechanism. It is a perspective view of a cutter support member. It is explanatory drawing of the crossing angle of a cutter blade. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of an Example apparatus. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of an Example apparatus. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of an Example apparatus. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of an Example apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

12 Cutter blade 32 Support bracket 33 Cutter support member 40 Guide mechanism 41 Slide guide groove 42 Slide protrusion A Cutting part W Semiconductor wafer T Protection tape X Vertical axis α Crossing angle

Claims (3)

In the semiconductor wafer protective tape cutting method of cutting the protective tape attached to the surface of the semiconductor wafer along the outer shape of the semiconductor wafer by relatively running the cutter blade along the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer,
In order to change and adjust the crossing angle of the cutter blade in the wafer radial direction with respect to the surface of the semiconductor wafer, the angle of the cutter blade is changed around the cutting portion where the blade edge of the cutter blade and the protective tape contact each other. How to cut the protective tape. In a semiconductor wafer protective tape cutting device for cutting a protective tape attached to the surface of a semiconductor wafer along the outer shape of the semiconductor wafer by running a cutter blade along the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer,
A cutter support member attached with a cutter blade is mounted on a support bracket that is driven and swiveled around a vertical axis that is concentric with the center of the semiconductor wafer, and the cutting portion where the blade edge of the cutter blade contacts the protective tape is the center. An arcuate guide mechanism is interposed between the support bracket and the cutter support member, and the cutter support member is supported via the guide mechanism so that the angle of the cutter support member can be adjusted and fixed with respect to the support bracket. Protective tape cutting device. In the protective tape cutting device according to claim 2,
The guide mechanism is configured by an arc-shaped slide guide groove and an arc-shaped slide protrusion that is slidably fitted in the arc direction, and the slide guide groove is provided on one of a support bracket and a cutter support member, A protective tape cutting device comprising the slide protrusion on the other side.

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