Optimization of DPSS Ultraviolet Laser Dicing of Silicon Carbide Chips Using Design of Experiment Methodology

Guillaume Savriama (1) , Francis Baillet (2) , Laurent Barreau (3) , Chantal Boulmer-Leborgne (1) , Nadjib Semmar (1)

1 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés
2 SIMaP - Science et Ingénierie des Matériaux et Procédés
3 ST-TOURS - STMicroelectronics [Tours]

This paper investigates the laser micro-machining of SiC-4H wafers with an ultraviolet (355 nm) nanosecond source. The design of experiment methodology was used to study the effect of pulse energy, number of passes, defocus and scanning speed on scribing depth and was modelled with Design Expert® software. This model predicted a narrow set of processing parameters to scribe half of the wafer thickness (180/360 µm). A more fundamental study was also conducted in order to validate literature observations about the ablation mechanism. A brief comparison between conventional blade dicing and the laser scribe-break method was performed on a 3' diameter wafer. It revealed a possible gain of gross die (number of usable chips per wafer) of 7% which is economically interesting.

Domaines: Génie des procédés

Guillaume Savriama, Francis Baillet, Laurent Barreau, Chantal Boulmer-Leborgne, Nadjib Semmar. Optimization of DPSS Ultraviolet Laser Dicing of Silicon Carbide Chips Using Design of Experiment Methodology. Journal of Laser Applications, 2015, pp.1-9. ⟨hal-01147115⟩