Speaker

Higher yield and sustainability through innovative, more efficient dicing

The production of semiconductor components (chips) is realised on thin wafers and is an energy and resource-intensive process that can take up to 12 weeks. Before the chips can be further processed, they must be separated on the wafer by the so-called dicing - a critical process step that introduces considerable damage to the chip sidewalls.
Increasing demands on the edge quality of the chips, the uniformity and repeatability of the cutting lines and the rapidly increasing use of new, hard and brittle semiconductor materials pose major challenges for the dicing industry.
With a market volume of approx. USD 800 million in 2022 and an expected CAGR of > 20%, silicon carbide, as a more powerful and efficient silicon alternative, is a new semiconductor material with enormous relevance. Silicon carbide is used in power electronics, particularly in electric vehicles, EV charging stations and solar energy systems. The 30-50 times higher production costs compared to silicon make silicon carbide components valuable and expensive products where dicing quality is crucial. Due to its hardness and high melting point, the separation of silicon carbide is particularly challenging and leads to enormous, cost-intensive wear of saw blades when mechanically cut. Alternative separation processes such as dry ablation laser dicing lead to thermal damage, delamination and burrs due to the high energy input required. With our innovative LidroCUT process based on USP lasers in liquid, we address these challenges in the separation of silicon carbide wafers with a wear-free and cooled process that reduces waste to almost 0%.