Patent attributes
To divide into individual devices efficiently in dicing a wafer without causing quality of the devices to lower, a wafer processing method includes steps of coating a rear surface of the wafer with a resist film, exposing and sensitizing portions of the resist film other than regions corresponding to the streets; and supplying a silylation agent onto a surface of the resist film and silylating the resist film in a sensitized region. In an etching unit, an oxygen- or chlorine-containing gas is plasmatized and supplied to a rear surface of the wafer coated with a silylated resist film, and the resist film in an unsilylated regions corresponding to the streets is ashed and removed. A stable fluoride gas is plasmatized and supplied to the rear surface of the wafer, and the resist film in the regions corresponding to the streets is etch-removed to divide the wafer W into individual devices.
