We all know that laser equipment is widely used in daily life, so do you know what its applications are in the semiconductor industry? Let's take a look at it together.

In wafer manufacturing, the most commonly used laser is etching, annealing and repairing. In the early days, chemical or plasma etching was used, but the accuracy and thermal influence control were not ideal. Later, laser micromachining technology matured, and many factories began to use laser etching to replace some traditional processes. Another is wafer dicing.

The traditional dicing saw uses a diamond blade to cut, but that kind of mechanical stress is large and the edge is easy to collapse. Now many chip factories, especially those making power devices or MEMS chips, use laser dicing instead. Laser can achieve non-contact cutting, the incision is very narrow, and it will not produce dust, which is more friendly to subsequent packaging.

There are more and more lasers in packaging, such as laser marking, welding, glue removal and window opening. Everyone is familiar with marking. Using optical fiber or green laser to engrave the model and batch code on the chip has high precision and high speed.

In welding, laser can do wire welding and sealing welding, especially in airtight packaging or glass-metal sealing, the traditional heating method can not achieve the effect of local accurate heating at all. The laser energy is concentrated and hardly affects the surrounding area.

Generally speaking, the penetration of laser technology in semiconductor industry is not only driven by the demand of precision manufacturing, but also the result of process upgrading.

Now, from wafer to packaging, laser equipment is involved in every step. It is not a single process, but a constantly optimized "tool" in the whole process chain. In the future, new technologies such as laser stripping, laser remelting and even laser-assisted lithography are expected to become more and more popular.