Patent attributes
A laser beam is applied to an intersection area of each second street of a wafer by using a dicing apparatus to thereby form a first modified layer along the intersection area. Thereafter, the wafer is divided along each first street intersecting each second street at right angles to obtain a plurality of wafer strips. Thereafter, the laser beam is applied along the remaining area of each second street other than the intersection area to form a second modified layer along the remaining area of each second street. Thereafter, an external force is applied to each wafer strip in which the first and second modified layers have been formed along each second street, thereby dividing each wafer strip along each second street to obtain a plurality of devices.