Si

Silicon

Element name: Silicon
Atomic number: 14

Dicing Before Grinding

DBG

Applicable Devices

Dicing Before Grinding (DBG) of silicon wafers is frequently used for the manufacturing of memory devices with stacked thin die used in mobile devices. It is also adopted in the manufacturing of a wide range of semiconductor devices that need thinner die for the purpose of high-profile manufacturing, such as microcontrollers for mobile device and chips for IC cards.

Features of Processing Results

Reduction of Wafer-Level Breakage Risk

The risk of wafer-level breakage increases the larger and/or thinner the wafer is. Therefore, a countermeasure for wafer-level breakage is especially important when thinning Φ300 mm wafers, which is currently mainstream for semiconductor device manufacturing. In the DGB process, wafer thinning and die separation are performed at the same time during grinding and the thinned wafers are never transferred, greatly reducing the risk of wafer-level breakage.

Reduction of Backside Chipping (Small Chipping on Backside of Die)

In the DGB process, die separation is performed by grinding (processing using a grinding wheel), not by dicing (cutting using a blade). The DGB process does not require full-cut dicing or die separation using a blade, so the risk of backside chipping is greatly reduced.

Improvement in Die Strength

Die strength improves due to low backside chipping. It has been confirmed that the DBG process achieves further improved die strength when compared to wafer processing with a combination of Thin Grinding Mounting (TGM) and dry polishing.