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J. P. Sercel Associates Inc. (JPSA) has been awarded a patent in Korea for its front-side laser scribing technique for LED wafers. The company says that the technique provides LED manufacturers with the ability to process wafers more rapidly at higher yields.
JPSA, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, designs and supplies laser-based materials processing workstations.
The patent involves the use of a unique laser energy distribution technique, allowing extremely narrow kerf widths of 2.5 microns wide. JPSA says this results in faster processing and higher yields. Narrower kerfs also yield more die per wafer.
JPSA developed the LED sapphire wafer dicing capability in conjunction with IX-200 Chromadice DPSS UV laser wafer singulation system.
"Our Chromadice system, using this patented process, can process fifteen 2-inch wafers per hour," says Jeffrey Sercel, JPSA president. "That represents a dramatic increase in throughput compared to diamond scribing and conventional laser techniques."
The IX-200 ChromaDiceT DPSS version is a high-precision wafer dicing (singulation) system also suitable for wafer trimming and scribing applications. Its UV diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser system delivers high-speed wafer dicing and cutting with typical yields greater than 99% at less than $2 per wafer.
The process is tolerant of wafer warp and bow and suitable for all wafer types. The IX-200 system is also available in an excimer laser version for via drilling, micromachining, thin film patterning and many other semiconductor packaging applications including LED liftoff. | 
