Everything You Need to Know About the Die Preparation Process

Die preparation is a process that involves the singulation of wafers into individual dies in preparation for silicon wafer assembly. This step has two major parts: wafer mounting and wafer sawing. So here’s everything you need to know about the die preparation process.

What Do I Need to Know About the Die Preparation Process?

The first step of the die preparation process is the wafer mounting. This step is necessary because it provides support to a silicon wafer to aid its processing. During this process, the silicon wafer together with a wafer frame is secured on a wafer film or dicing tape.The wafer frame must be made from materials that are resistant to heat, warping, bending, and corrosion. The wafer film or dicing tape is a PVC sheet with fabricated adhesive on one side to support both the wafer and the frame.

Steps for Wafer Mounting

Wafer mounting uses a special machine to carry out the following steps:

• Frame loading.
• Wafer loading.
• Application of dicing tape to the wafer and the wafer frame.
• Getting rid of any excess tape.
• Off-loading the mounted wafer.

To preserve the quality of the silicon wafers during wafer mounting, wafer cracking, breakage, scratching, bubble trapping, and tape wrinkles must be prevented.

Steps for Wafer Sawing

After the wafer mounting process, the next step is wafer sawing. This process aims to cut wafers into single dies to prepare them for assembly in IC packages. The wafer sawing consists of the following steps:

• The frame-mounted wafer is aligned into position for sawing.
• The wafers are then cut according to the set size and dimension using a resin-bonded diamond wheel. This sawing machine needs to rotate at a very high rpm to guarantee precision.
• After the sawing process, the wafers will then go through a cleaning process. The wafers will be sprayed with high-pressure DI water on a rotating device and then air-blowed to dry.

Do You Need a Silicon Wafer?

The die preparation process is an important part of wafer assembly and packaging. To learn more about the die process and the manufacturing of silicon wafers, contact us today for more information!