A semiconductor wafer is diced utilizing a method that etches down to the top surface of the semiconductor wafer a number of times, such as during and following the formation of the metal interconnect structure, and then thins the semiconductor wafer from the back side until the semiconductor wafer singulates.

A method according to one embodiment includes aligning an alignment mark in a substantially transmissive process layer overlying a substrate, said mark comprising high reflectance areas for reflecting radiation of an alignment beam of radiation, and low reflectance areas for reflecting less radiation of the alignment beam, wherein the low reflectance areas comprise scattering structures for scattering radiation of the alignment beam.

An array of grooves (23) is formed in a first side (12) of a wafer (10) during a wafer processing method. A back grinding tape (16) is adhered to the first side. An amount of material is removed from the second side (20) of the wafer. An adhesive layer (30) is applied to the second side. Dicing tape (24) is applied to the adhesive layer to create a first wafer assembly (32). The first wafer assembly is supported on a support surface (34) with the dicing tape facing the support surface and the ba...

A vacuum or hermetic packaged micromachined or MEMS device and methods for manufacturing the device so that the device has at least one substantially vertical feedthrough are provided. In a first embodiment, the method includes: providing a MEMS device fabricated on a first side of a substrate and located within a vacuum or hermetic cavity; forming at least one hole completely through the substrate between first and second sides of the substrate after the step of providing; and forming a path of...

In one inventive aspect, a thin film device is manufactured by (a) forming a porous semiconductor layer in the form of a thin film on an original substrate, the formation being immediately followed by (b) separation of the thin film by a lift-off process from the original substrate; (c) transfer of the thin film to a dummy support, the thin film not being attached to the dummy support; (d) fabrication of a device on top of the thin film; and (e) transfer and attachment of said device on said thi...

A method for dicing semiconductor chips and a corresponding semiconductor chip system are described. The met-hod includes the steps: provision of a substrate having an upper substrate level, a middle substrate level and a lower substrate level; a plurality of empty spaces or porous areas being provided in the middle substrate level, the empty spaces or porous areas being enclosed by a substrate frame area; the empty spaces or porous areas being situated under a particular semiconductor chip area...

A method for the production of individual integrated circuit arrangements from a wafer composite is disclosed, whereby the wafer is fixed with the component side (FS) on a support, the individual circuit arrangements (21) are separated on the support body by the etching of separating trenches (27) and individually lifted from the support body. The semiconductor substrate (20) is reduced in thickness during the fixing of the wafer to the support body, preferably to a substrate thickness of less t...

Fabrication techniques for fabricating p-i-n structures that achieve a thin intrinsic layer and a small resistance across the p-i-n structure and thus a high response speed in a monolithically integrated circuit package. Germanium p-i-n structures may be fabricated over silicon or silicon-on-insulator substrates using silicon processing technologies.

Embodiments of the invention use silicon on porous silicon wafers to produce a reduced-thickness IC device wafers. After device manufacturing, a temporary support is bonded to the device layer. The uppermost silicon layer is then separated from the silicon substrate by splitting the porous silicon layer. The porous silicon layer and temporary support are then removed and packaging is completed. Embodiments of the invention provide reliable, low cost methods and apparatuses for producing reduced-...

A method for fabricating a MEMS device comprises providing a substrate having a back side, a front side opposite to the back side and a periphery portion. A desired microstructure is formed on the back side of the substrate. The substrate is then supported for rotation. A precursor solution is deposited on the front side of the substrate during rotation so that a thin film layer may be formed thereon. During formation of the thin film layer, the substrate is supported and rotated that the micros...