Die separation and rupture strength for deep reactive ion etched silicon wafers

The work herein analyzes the bending stress required to separate and rupture die from notched silicon wafers. Trenches are formed on the wafers using either a dicing or Bosch deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process. Weibull distribution parameters are reported for all variations of the fracture experiments. Additionally, the relative defect rate associated with DRIE-based die separation are compared with traditional saw methods for a variety of notch depths. Results indicate that the DRIE-based separation technique offers improved rupture strength over the traditional methods, but can also greatly reduce die strength if performed improperly. Dies completely separated by the DRIE process showed a mean failure stress of 1.16 GPa with a Weibull standard deviation of 682 MPa compared to 452 and 65 MPa mean and standard deviation stress for die completely separated by a traditional dicing saw.

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