Wafer sawing process graphically illustrated

Your wafers in good hands

A wafer is a flat blank made of semiconductor materials such as silicon or gallium arsenide. Wafers are used in the semiconductor industry as starting material for the production of microchips and other electronic components. Wafer dicing describes the precision processing of wafers and substrates made of HTCC (high temperature co-fired ceramics) and LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramics)  such as ceramics, silicon, glass, germanium, sapphire, quartz, COB circuit boards or metal foils by means of mechanical cutting (sawing). The advantage of using the wafer saw is the extremely precise separation of the wafers, the exact edge quality and the variety of materials to be processed - including short set-up times.

 

Wafer processing options

Separating wafers and substrates into individual chips is an essential step in semiconductor and microtechnology. Wafer sawing is usually performed with saw blades that are fed through the wafer along sawing or grooving lines to divide it into small chips by means of cutoff grinding, formatting or separation. Alternatively, scribe lines can be applied to the wafer surface to facilitate cutting. The choice of the appropriate sawing and cutting process and the final diameter depends on the specific requirements of the process. This requires high precision to avoid damage and material residues on the chips and to ensure full functionality of the final product.

Technical Details

We offer the following options for processing your wafers and substrates:

  • complete cutting of the pre-mounted (glued) workpiece on carrier foil
  • production of mitre cuts
  • pure surface processing by grooves and notches (grooving)
  • circular cuts to reduce the size of the wafer
  • trimming to improve the edge quality

We process the following materials - each with or without optical coating layers or already printed or sputtered functional layers:

  • aluminium oxide (Al2O3) - thick-film and thin-film substrates
  • aluminium nitride (AlN), zirconium oxide (ZrO), silicon nitride (SiN)
  • LTCC, hybrids, PCBs
  • borosilicate, float, quartz glass or sapphire
  • mono- or polycrystalline silicon

 

The separated wafers and substrates can be delivered on foil left in the saw frame, in 2" or 4" waffle packs, already taped or in transport containers of your choice.

Further details can be found in our data sheets.

Materials from which wafers are made

Wafers can be made from various semiconductor and substrate materials.

Semiconductor materials:

  • Silicon (Si)
  • Gallium (Ga)
  • Germanium (Ge)

Substrate materials:

  • Quartz
  • Ceramics (LTCC and HTCC)
  • Glass
  • Borosilicate glass (Borofloat® and MEMpax®)
  • Panels
  • polycrystalline materials

Typical areas of application for wafer dicing

Wafer Dicing is used for the following applications:

  • grading and separating IR filter elements
  • cutting of semiconductor components (optoelectronic components, LEDs)
  • production of ceramic components in combination with laser processing as SMD components according to JEDEC standard
  • structuring of quartz glass elements
  • separation of multilayer ceramics (LTCC) in the printed state
  • separation of piezoceramics for signalling or fine positioning

Wafer sawing for various products

The grinding process in wafer dicing is complex and a high-precision operation that can be used to manufacture a wide range of products. In this process, excellent edge quality is critical to ensure the functionality of the final product. We support you in the production of:

  • Diodes
  • MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems)
  • Chips
  • LED modules
  • Sensor Packaging
  • Optical filters and sensors
  • Radiation and flow sensors
  • Semiconductor devices Si, power semiconductors SiC, GaN
  • Pressure sensors
  • Circuit carriers
Aluminum oxide wafer (0.8 x 0.3 x 0.25mm) on blue tape, wafer sawn
aluminium oxide (0.8 x 0.3 x 0.25mm) on blue tape, sawn
gold-coated plastic foil on blue tape, wafer sawn
gold-coated plastic foil on blue tape, sawed
Spacer Al2O3, cube 1.2 x 0.8 x 3.0mm on UV tape, wafer sawn
spacer Al2O3, cube 1.2 x 0.8 x 3.0mm on UV tape, sawed
Multilayer LTCC ceramics, combination processing wafer dicing and laser processing
multilayer LTCC ceramics, combination processing Wafer dicing and laser processing

Download data sheets

  • pdf
    Wafer Dicing
    73 KB
  • pdf
    Ceramics Machining
    72 KB
  • pdf
    Design Guideline
    465 KB
  • pdf
    Data Transfer
    85 KB

Our services for you

We process your substrates and wafers according to your specifications. Depending on the installation conditions and application purpose, a combination of laser and dicing processing can also prove useful and sensible. Our staff will be happy to advise you on this.

Discover more technologies now and take a look at our available materials.

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