Patent attributes
To facilitate handling of a wafer in processing or carrying of the wafer after the wafer has been reduced in thickness by grinding, the whole back of a wafer is ground to provide the wafer with a predetermined thickness. The wafer surface includes a device region, with a plurality of devices formed therein, and a peripheral surplus region enclosing the device region. After grinding of the whole back surface, a region of the back surface corresponding to the device region on the wafer surface is ground to form a concave portion having a predetermined thickness, so that a ring-like reinforcement portion is formed about a periphery of the concave portion, such that the wafer is easily handled in a subsequent step or in wafer carrying between respective steps.
