Effect of laminated wafer toward dicing process and alternative double pass sawing method to reduce chipping

Thin wafers of 100-μm thickness laminated with die-attach film (DAF) was diced using a standard sawing process and revealed a low chipping crack resistance. Wafers laminated with conductive DAF shows greater chipping compared to nonconductive DAF and bare silicon wafer. It was found through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) that silver fillers in the conductive DAF was the cause of excessive blade loading which resulted in bad chipping quality. To reduce chipping/cracking induced by sawing, an alternative double-pass sawing method was developed and is explained in the paper. The methodology of this study discusses a double-pass method, where the first pass dice through the wafer and varied the percentage of DAF thickness cut. Best results were achieved when dicing through the wafer and 0% of DAF, followed by a full separation in the second pass. Approximately 80% of chipping reduction compared to conventional single pass.