Method and apparatus for separating semiconductor chips

Abstract

In an apparatus for separating semiconductor chips, a semiconductor wafer stuck to an adhesive sheet with its silicon mirror surface facing downwards is sucked as a whole through its circuit surface side by means of a sucker plate capable of sucking the whole of wafer. In order to separate the sheet from a frame fixing the sheet while the sheet being sucked, the sheet is cut by a cutter edge so as to be separated from the frame. To separate the sheet from the wafer, the wafer top surface is guided by a guide plate having a tip angle of 15° and by causing the sheet to profile the tip of the guide plate, the sheet is peeled off in a direction making an angle of 45° to the dicing direction on the wafer.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for separating semiconductor chips comprising the steps of: 
 positioning a sheet, to which a wafer diced into many semiconductor chips is stuck and which has its edge surrounded and supported by a frame, to a predetermined site;    sucking said wafer to a sucker plate;    cutting said sheet to cut off, from said frame, a part of said sheet including a site where said wafer is stuck to said sheet;    separating said sheet from said wafer while said wafer being sucked to said sucker plate; and    picking up the individual semiconductor chips, transferring them from said sucker plate to a different site and storing them in a tray.    
     
     
         2 . A semiconductor chip separating method according to  claim 1 , wherein when separating said sheet from said semiconductor wafer, said sheet is separated by pulling the edge of said sheet in a predetermined direction while said sheet being moved under a guidance of a wedge-shaped guide, said wedge-shaped guide being moved in a direction making an angle of about 45° to the dicing line for chips on said wafer and concurrently therewith said sheet being pulled in the 45° direction, said sheet being caused to profile an angle of 15° of said wedge-shaped guide so as to be pulled in a direction making an angle of about 15° to the top surface of said sucker plate.  
     
     
         3 . An apparatus for separating semiconductor chips comprising: 
 a sucker plate for sucking a wafer diced into many semiconductor chips and stuck to a sheet surrounded and supported by a frame;    a cutter for cutting said sheet to cut off, from said frame, a part of said sheet including a site where said wafer is stuck to said sheet;    a separation mechanism for pulling said sheet in a predetermined direction while said wafer being sucked to said sucker plate so as to peel off said sheet from said wafer; and    a moving mechanism for picking up the individual semiconductor chips independently of each other from said sucker plate and moving them.    
     
     
         4 . A semiconductor chip separating apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein said sucker plate is rotatable.