公开(公告)号：US20240051064A1

公开(公告)日：2024-02-15

申请号：US18360159

申请日：2023-07-27

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: B23K26/08 ,  B23K26/06

CPC classification number: B23K26/083 ,  B23K26/0665 ,  B23K26/0604 ,  B23K2103/56

Abstract: A laser oscillation unit of a laser processing machine for manufacturing a SiC wafer from a SiC ingot includes a seed laser that emits a pulsed laser beam at predetermined pulse intervals, a splitter unit that splits the pulsed laser beam emitted by the seed laser, into at least a first pulsed laser beam and a second pulsed laser beam, a delay unit that delays one of the first pulsed laser beam and the second pulsed laser beam, a merger unit that merges the first pulsed laser beam and the second pulsed laser beam on a downstream side of the delay unit, and an amplifier arranged on a downstream side of the merger unit. A manufacturing method of a SiC wafer from a SiC ingot is also disclosed.

公开(公告)号：US20230048318A1

公开(公告)日：2023-02-16

申请号：US17818416

申请日：2022-08-09

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Kazuya HIRATA ,  Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: B23K26/53 ,  B23K26/06 ,  B23K26/38 ,  B23K26/00 ,  H01L21/304

Abstract: A wafer producing method includes a peel-off layer forming step of forming a peel-off layer by positioning a focused spot of a laser beam having a wavelength transmittable through an ingot to a depth corresponding to a thickness of the wafer to be produced from the ingot from a first end surface of the ingot and applying the laser beam to the ingot, a first chamfered portion forming step of forming a first chamfered portion by applying, from the first end surface side to a peripheral surplus region of the wafer, a laser beam having a wavelength absorbable by the wafer, a peeling-off step of peeling off the wafer to be produced, and a second chamfered portion forming step of forming a second chamfered portion by applying, from a peel-off surface side of the wafer, the laser beam having a wavelength absorbable by the wafer.

公开(公告)号：US20190287801A1

公开(公告)日：2019-09-19

申请号：US16299445

申请日：2019-03-12

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Ryohei YAMAMOTO ,  Kazuyuki HINOHARA

IPC: H01L21/02 ,  H01L21/66 ,  H01L21/67

Abstract: A method of producing a wafer includes forming a peel-off layer in a hexagonal single-crystal ingot by applying a laser beam having a wavelength transmittable through the ingot while positioning a focal point of the laser beam in the ingot at a depth corresponding to the thickness of a wafer to be produced from an end face of the ingot, generating ultrasonic waves from an ultrasonic wave generating unit positioned in facing relation to the wafer to be produced across a water layer interposed therebetween, thereby to break the peel-off layer, and detecting when the wafer to be produced is peeled off the ingot based on a change that is detected in the height of an upper surface of the wafer to be produced by a height detecting unit positioned above the upper surface of the wafer to be produced across the water wafer interposed therebetween.

公开(公告)号：US20210327733A1

公开(公告)日：2021-10-21

申请号：US17211176

申请日：2021-03-24

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Kentaro IIZUKA ,  Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: H01L21/67 ,  H01L21/677

Abstract: A wafer forming apparatus includes a conveying tray having an ingot accommodating section that accommodates a semiconductor ingot and a wafer accommodating section that accommodates a wafer formed from the semiconductor ingot, a belt conveyor unit that conveys the conveying tray to each processing apparatus, a cassette rack on which cassettes accommodating the wafers are placed correspondingly to the conveying trays, and a transferring unit that transfers the wafer from the wafer accommodating section of the conveying tray to the cassette placed on the cassette rack. The conveying tray is provided with an identification mark. The cassette rack or the cassette corresponding to the conveying tray is provided with the same identification mark as the identification mark provided on the conveying tray.

公开(公告)号：US20190160708A1

公开(公告)日：2019-05-30

申请号：US16199576

申请日：2018-11-26

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Kazuyuki HINOHARA ,  Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: B28D5/00 ,  B23K26/364

Abstract: A peeling apparatus includes: an ingot holding unit holding an ingot with an ingot portion corresponding to a wafer being faced up; an ultrasonic wave oscillating unit which has an end face facing the ingot portion corresponding to the wafer and oscillates an ultrasonic wave; a water supplying unit supplying water to an area between the ingot portion corresponding to the wafer and the end face of the ultrasonic wave oscillating unit; and a peeling unit that holds the ingot portion corresponding to the wafer with suction and peels off the wafer from the ingot.

公开(公告)号：US20230082612A1

公开(公告)日：2023-03-16

申请号：US17930197

申请日：2022-09-07

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Koyo HONOKI ,  Koji ITABASHI ,  Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: B65G47/91 ,  B65G47/90 ,  B32B43/00

Abstract: A conveying apparatus for conveying a plate-shaped workpiece includes a holding unit that holds the plate-shaped workpiece under suction, a moving unit that moves in a vertical direction together with the holding unit, a detection unit that detects that the holding unit has moved downward and made contact with the plate-shaped workpiece, and a control unit that performs control to stop a downward movement of the moving unit when the detection unit detects that the holding unit has made contact with the plate-shaped workpiece.

公开(公告)号：US20220161367A1

公开(公告)日：2022-05-26

申请号：US17650735

申请日：2022-02-11

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Ryohei YAMAMOTO ,  Kazuya HIRATA

IPC: B23K26/364 ,  B28D5/00 ,  B24B1/00

Abstract: A wafer producing apparatus detects a facet area from an upper surface of an SiC ingot, sets X and Y coordinates of plural points lying on a boundary between the facet area and a nonfacet area in an XY plane, and sets a focal point of a laser beam having a transmission wavelength to SiC inside the SiC ingot at a predetermined depth from the upper surface of the SiC ingot. The predetermined depth corresponds to the thickness of the SiC wafer to be produced. A control unit increases the energy of the laser beam and raises a position of the focal point in applying the laser beam to the facet area as compared with the energy of the laser beam and a position of the focal point in applying the laser beam to the nonfacet area, according to the X and Y coordinates.

公开(公告)号：US20200156190A1

公开(公告)日：2020-05-21

申请号：US16685393

申请日：2019-11-15

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: B23K26/53 ,  H01L29/16 ,  B23K26/00

Abstract: A wafer producing method for producing a wafer from an ingot, the ingot being previously formed with a separation layer along which the wafer is to be separated from the ingot. The wafer producing method includes a first ultrasonic vibration applying step of applying ultrasonic vibration to a given area of the ingot at a high density to thereby form a partially broken portion where a part of the separation layer is broken, a second ultrasonic vibration applying step of applying the ultrasonic vibration to the whole area of the ingot larger than the given area at a low density, after performing the first ultrasonic vibration applying step, thereby forming a fully broken portion where the separation layer is fully broken in such a manner that breaking starts from the partially broken portion, and a separating step of separating the wafer from the ingot along the fully broken portion.

公开(公告)号：US20200086426A1

公开(公告)日：2020-03-19

申请号：US16563282

申请日：2019-09-06

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Ryohei YAMAMOTO ,  Kazuya HIRATA

IPC: B23K26/364 ,  B28D5/00 ,  B24B1/00

Abstract: A wafer producing method includes a facet area detecting step of detecting a facet area from an upper surface of an SiC ingot, a coordinates setting step of setting the X and Y coordinates of plural points lying on the boundary between the facet area and a nonfacet area in an XY plane, and a feeding step of setting a focal point of a laser beam having a transmission wavelength to SiC inside the SiC ingot at a predetermined depth from the upper surface of the SiC ingot, the predetermined depth corresponding to the thickness of the SiC wafer to be produced, next applying the laser beam from a focusing unit in a laser processing apparatus to the SiC ingot, and relatively moving the SiC ingot and the focal point in an X direction parallel to the X axis in the XY plane, thereby forming a belt-shaped separation layer extending in the X direction inside the SiC ingot.

公开(公告)号：US20190304769A1

公开(公告)日：2019-10-03

申请号：US16371302

申请日：2019-04-01

Applicant: DISCO CORPORATION

Inventor： Kazuya HIRATA ,  Ryohei YAMAMOTO

IPC: H01L21/02 ,  H01L29/16

Abstract: A method of producing a wafer from a hexagonal single-crystal ingot includes the steps of planarizing an end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot, forming a peel-off layer in the hexagonal single-crystal ingot by applying a pulsed laser beam whose wavelength is transmittable through the hexagonal single-crystal ingot while positioning a focal point of the pulsed laser beam in the hexagonal single-crystal ingot at a depth corresponding to a thickness of a wafer to be produced from the planarized end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot, recording a fabrication history on the planarized end face of the hexagonal single-crystal ingot by applying a pulsed laser beam to the hexagonal single-crystal ingot while positioning a focal point of the last-mentioned pulsed laser beam in a device-free area of the wafer to be produced.