Thermal Laser Separation – A Novel Dicing Technology Fulfilling the Demands of Volume Manufacturing of 4H-SiC Devices

One challenge for volume manufacturing of 4H-SiC devices is the state-of-the-art wafer dicing technology – the mechanical blade dicing which suffers from high tool wear and low feed rates. In this paper we discuss Thermal Laser Separation (TLS) as a novel dicing technology for large scale production of SiC devices. We compare the latest TLS experimental data resulting from fully processed 4H-SiC wafers with results obtained by mechanical dicing technology. Especially typical product relevant features like process control monitoring (PCM) structures and backside metallization, quality of diced SiC-devices as well as productivity are considered. It could be shown that with feed rates up to two orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art, no tool wear and high quality of diced chips, TLS has a very promising potential to fulfill the demands of volume manufacturing of 4H-SiC devices.