Method of processing substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12322598-B2
Application number	US-202217838304-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2022
Priority date	Oct 27, 2021
Publication date	Jun 3, 2025
Grant date	Jun 3, 2025

Abstract

A method of processing a substrate includes mounting a substrate on a concave mounting surface of a mounting table and deforming a surface of the substrate into a concave shape; detecting, by a height sensor, a height of the surface of the substrate in a vertical direction; determining positions of a plurality of first focus points based on height data of the surface of the substrate, detected by the height sensor; and forming a first modification layer in the substrate by irradiating the plurality of first focus points with a laser beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of processing a substrate, the method comprising:
mounting a substrate on a concave mounting surface of a mounting table and deforming a surface of the substrate into a concave shape corresponding to the concave mounting surface;
detecting, by a height sensor, a height of the deformed surface of the substrate in a vertical direction while a location of the mounting table moves along a horizontal direction with respect to a location of the height sensor to generate a curved height profile line corresponding to a profile of the deformed surface of the substrate;
determining positions of a plurality of first focus points based on the curved height profile line of the surface of the substrate, detected by the height sensor; and
forming a first modification layer in the substrate by irradiating the plurality of first focus points with a laser beam while the substrate remains mounted to the concave mounting surface of the mounting table.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of the height of the deformed surface of the substrate comprises detecting heights at a plurality of measure positions on the deformed surface of the substrate while moving the mounting table in the horizontal direction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of first focus points are on a focus line offset by a uniform distance in the vertical direction from the curved height profile line.

4. The method of claim 1 ,
further comprising determining positions of a plurality of second focus points based on height data of the deformed surface of the substrate detected by the height sensor; and
forming a second modification layer in the substrate by irradiating the plurality of second focus points with a laser beam,
wherein the plurality of first focus points are closer to the concave mounting surface of the mounting table than the plurality of second focus points.

5. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the concave mounting surface of the mounting table comprises a curved surface, and
in the deforming of the substrate, the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the concave mounting surface of the mounting table and deformed such that the deformed surface of the substrate has a curvature equal to a curvature of the concave mounting surface of the mounting table.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the mounting table comprises at least one first vacuum channel extending from a central portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table and at least one second vacuum channel extending from an outer portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table,
a central portion of the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the central portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table, and an outer portion of the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the outer portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adjusting a curvature of the mounting surface of the mounting table.

8. The method of claim 7 ,
wherein the adjusting of the curvature of the mounting surface of the mounting table comprises
adjusting a pressure of a cavity of the mounting table by injecting air into the cavity of the mounting table or discharging air from the cavity of the mounting table.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein, from a cross-sectional view, the concave mounting surface of the mounting table extends in a curve shape from an edge to another edge of the mounting surface of the mounting table.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the height sensor comprises a confocal sensor.

11. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the substrate comprises a semiconductor substrate, and
the laser beam is in an infrared ray wavelength band.

12. A method of processing a substrate, the method comprising:
preparing a substrate, the substrate comprising a plurality of integrated circuit regions and a cutting region separating the integrated circuit regions from one another; and
cutting the substrate along the cutting region,
wherein the cutting of the substrate comprises:
mounting the substrate on a concave mounting surface of a mounting table, and adsorbing the substrate to the concave mounting surface to conform to the concave mounting surface, thereby deforming a surface of the substrate into a concave shape;
detecting, by a height sensor, a height of the deformed surface of the substrate in a vertical direction to generate a curved height profile line corresponding to a profile of the deformed surface of the substrate;
determining positions of a plurality of first focus points on the curved height profile line of the deformed surface of the substrate detected by the height sensor, wherein the plurality of first focus points are located in the substrate; and
forming a first modification layer in the substrate by irradiating the plurality of first focus points with a laser beam, wherein
the plurality of first focus points are provided in the cutting region and are each the same distance from the surface of the substrate.

13. The method of claim 12 ,
wherein the detecting the height of the deformed surface of the substrate comprises detecting heights at a plurality of measure positions on the surface of the substrate while moving the mounting table in a first horizontal direction, and
the forming of the first modification layer in the substrate comprises irradiating the plurality of first focus points with the laser beam while moving the mounting table in a direction opposite to the first horizontal direction.

14. The method of claim 12 ,
further comprising generating the curved height profile line corresponding to the profile of the surface of the substrate based on height data of the surface of the substrate detected by the height sensor, and
the plurality of first focus points are on a focus line offset by a uniform distance in the vertical direction from the height profile line.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
determining positions of a plurality of second focus points based on the height data of the surface of the substrate detected by the height sensor; and
forming a second modification layer in the substrate by irradiating the plurality of second focus points with a laser beam,
wherein the plurality of second focus points are provided in the cutting region and on a second focus line offset by a uniform distance in the vertical direction from the height profile line.

16. The method of claim 12 ,
wherein the mounting surface of the mounting table comprises a concave curved surface,
the mounting table comprises at least one first vacuum channel extending from a central portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table and at least one second vacuum channel extending from an outer portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table,
a central portion of the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the central portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table, an outer portion of the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the outer portion of the mounting surface of the mounting table, and
in the deforming of the substrate, the substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the mounting surface of the mounting table and deformed such that the surface of the substrate has a curvature equal to a curvature of the mounting surface.

17. The method of claim 16 ,
wherein the adsorbing the substrate to the concave mounting surface is controlled by a first pressure, and wherein the shape of the concave mounting surface is controlled by a second pressure different and separately controlled from the first pressure,
wherein the mounting table comprises a

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Hwayoung

Classifications

• H10P72/78

  using vacuum or suction, e.g. Bernoulli chucks · CPC title

• H10P54/00 Primary

  Cutting or separating of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10P34/42 Primary

  with electromagnetic radiation, e.g. laser annealing (laser cutting H10P54/20) · CPC title

• H10P74/203

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• H10P72/0604

  Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring · CPC title