Wafer Dicing

Wafer dicing, also known as die singulation, is the process in semiconductor device fabrication by which individual dies are separated from a finished semiconductor wafer, carried out by scribing and breaking, mechanical sawing with a dicing saw, or laser cutting, with every method typically automated for precision. During dicing the wafer is mounted on a sticky dicing tape held on a thin metal frame, and a dicing saw may use a diamond-particle blade spinning at 30,000 revolutions per minute cooled with deionized water; the kerfs it cuts, called die streets, are typically about 75 micrometers wide. Standard practice dices the wafer only after it has first been thinned in a step called back side grinding. The resulting dies, which can range from about 35 millimeters on a side down to just 0.1 millimeter square and are usually rectangular or square, remain on the dicing tape until removed by die-handling equipment such as a die bonder, ready to be packaged or placed directly onto a circuit board as a bare die.