Fracture mechanism analysis for stealth dicing applied in wafer expansion

This paper successfully established an effective model for analyzing the fracture mechanism of the silicon wafer when subjected to force by stealth laser beams. By using this model, simulations can be performed, in substitution of experimentation in a large quantity, to quickly obtain the wafer fracture trend at various machine parameters when stealth dicing (SD) is applied. A commercial software package, Abaqus, was used to simulate the effect of tapes, SD crack percentage, die size, and thickness of the wafer on the development of cracks at specific machine parameters. The simulation results were analyzed using the Taguchi method, which shows that SD crack percentage is the most critical factor because it exclusively determines the wafer crack trend. The Taguchi analysis results show that under the condition of a large Young´s modulus of the tape, large die size, or small thickness, the wafer crack trend becomes increasingly evident.