A substrate bonding apparatus for bonding a first substrate to a second substrate includes a first bonding chuck supporting the first substrate, a second bonding chuck disposed above the first bonding chuck and supporting the second substrate, a resonant frequency detector detecting a resonant frequency of a bonded structure with the first substrate and the second substrate which are at least partially bonded to each other, and a controller controlling a distance between the first bonding chuck and the second bonding chuck according to the detected resonant frequency of the bonded structure.

An optical axis adjusting method includes a position detecting step of emitting a laser beam from a laser oscillator, applying the laser beam to a processing point, and detecting the position of the laser beam by using a position detecting unit set at the processing point, a storing step of storing the position of the laser beam as detected in the position detecting step as a reference position, and an adjusting step of operating an adjusting mechanism of each optical component holder in the case that the position of the laser beam is deviated from the reference position after performing maintenance of each optical component, thereby adjusting the position of the laser beam so that the position of the laser beam is shifted back to the reference position.

Methods and apparatus for increasing a bonded area between an ultrathin die and a substrate. In some embodiments, the method may include cleaning the die and the substrate, placing the die on an upper surface of the substrate, compacting the die to the substrate using a downward force of at least one compacting roller on the die and the upper surface of the substrate to increase a bonded area between the die and the upper surface of the substrate, and annealing the die and the substrate. The compacting roller has a soft surface layer that engages with the die and the upper surface of the substrate. The soft surface layer has a Shore hardness of greater than approximately 30 and less than approximately 80. In some embodiments, the substrate and/or the compacting roller may rotate during contact with each other.

A substrate bonding apparatus includes a first bonding chuck configured to support a first substrate and a second bonding chuck configured to support a second substrate such that the second substrate faces the first substrate. The first bonding chuck includes a first base, a first deformable plate on the first base and configured to support the first substrate and configured to be deformed such that a distance between the first base and the first deformable plate is varied, and a first piezoelectric sheet on the first deformable plate and configured to be deformed in response to power applied thereto to deform the first deformable plate.

A segmented edge protection shield for plasma dicing a wafer. The segmented edge protection shield includes an outer structure and a plurality of plasma shield edge segments. The outer structure defines an interior annular edge configured to correspond to the circumferential edge of the wafer. Each one of the plurality of plasma shield edge segments is defined by an inner edge and side edges. The inner edge is interior to and concentric to the annular edge of the outer structure. The side edges extend between the inner edge and the annular edge.

An apparatus includes a first and second stages. The first and second stages respectively hold a first and second substrates. The second stage being opposed to the first stage. A stress application portion applies a stress to the first substrate based on a first magnification value. A calculator calculates the first magnification value based on a flatness of the first substrate and a first equation. The first equation represents a relation between flatness of a third substrate, a second magnification value, and an amount of pattern misalignment between the third substrate and a fourth substrate bonded to the third substrate. A controller controls the stress application portion to apply a stress to the first substrate on the first stage based on the first magnification value while the first and second substrates are bonded to each other.

Disclosed herein is a semiconductor device chip manufacturing method including a chipping prevention layer forming step of forming a chipping prevention layer at each intersection of a plurality of crossing division lines formed on the front side of a wafer, a modified layer forming step of applying a laser beam having a transmission wavelength to the wafer to the back side thereof along each division line in the condition where the focal point of the laser beam is set inside the wafer, thereby forming a modified layer inside the wafer along each division line, and a dividing step of grinding the back side of the wafer after performing the modified layer forming step, thereby reducing the thickness of the wafer and also dividing the wafer into individual semiconductor device chips along each division line where the modified layer is formed as a break start point.

A laser irradiation method of irradiating, with a pulse laser beam, an irradiation object in which an impurity source film is formed on a semiconductor substrate includes: reading fluence per pulse of the pulse laser beam with which a rectangular irradiation region set on the irradiation object is irradiated and the number of irradiation pulses the irradiation region is irradiated, the fluence being equal to or larger than a threshold at or beyond which ablation potentially occurs to the impurity source film when the irradiation object is irradiated with pulses of the pulse laser beam in the irradiation pulse number and smaller than a threshold at or beyond which damage potentially occurs to the surface of the semiconductor substrate; calculating a scanning speed Vdx; and moving the irradiation object at the scanning speed Vdx relative to the irradiation region while irradiating the irradiation region with the pulse laser beam at the repetition frequency f.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a method that includes aligned a first wafer with a second wafer. The second wafer is spaced apart from the first wafer. The first wafer is arranged on a first electrostatic chuck (ESC). The first ESC has electrostatic contacts that are configured to attract the first wafer to the first ESC. Further, the second wafer is brought toward the first wafer to directly contact the first wafer at an inter-wafer interface. The inter-wafer interface is localized to a center of the first wafer. The second wafer is deformed to gradually expand the inter-wafer interface from the center of the first wafer toward an edge of the first wafer. The electrostatic contacts of the first ESC are turned OFF such that the first and second wafers are bonded to one another by the inter-wafer interface.

A processing device and method for safely processing a wafer having bumps formed on a surface thereof. A processing device is provided with: a chuck capable of holding a bump region of a wafer; a support ring having a support surface for supporting a bend region which extends from the bump region to an outer peripheral region and in which a film is bent, the support ring capable of supporting the outer peripheral region of the wafer; and a chuck table in which the chuck is housed substantially centrally and the support ring is housed around the chuck.