Patent 7915142 was granted and assigned to Disco Corporation on March, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A wafer processing method for dividing a wafer into individual devices along streets. The wafer processing method includes the steps of forming a division groove on the front side of the wafer along each street, attaching the front side of the wafer to the front side of a rigid plate having a plurality of grooves by using an adhesive resin, applying ultraviolet radiation to the adhesive resin to thereby increase the holding force of the adhesive resin, grinding the back side of the wafer to expose the division grooves to the back side of the wafer, attaching an adhesive tape to the back side of the wafer, immersing the wafer and the rigid plate in hot water to swell the adhesive resin, thereby decreasing the holding force of the adhesive resin, and removing the rigid plate from the front side of the wafer.