DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Klingbeil(USPGPUB DOCUMENT: 2017/0358537, hereinafter Klingbeil) in view of Kawashima (USPGPUB DOCUMENT: 2009/0294913, hereinafter Kawashima).
Re claim 1 Klingbeil discloses a wafer(104) dicing method, comprising: using a laser beam[0049] to perform a first dicing(614) on a wafer(104) to form a dicing lane(street)[0030] on the wafer(104); and using the bevel knife(712) to perform a third dicing on a bottom surface of the dicing lane(street)[0030], wherein, during the third dicing, the wafer(104) cut width(722) of the second dicing is used to activate a compensation mechanism of the dicing machine (since the dicing machine recoups or retrogrades, this may be interpreted as compensation)[0013], so that the bevel knife(712) cuts to a predetermined wafer(104) cut width(722).
Klingbeil does not disclose using a bevel knife(712) of a dicing machine to perform a second dicing in an inactive area of the wafer(104), wherein, before the second dicing, the bevel knife(712) is raised to a preset height to compensate for a thickness difference of the wafer(104) in the inactive area and the dicing lane(street)[0030]; obtaining a wafer(104) cut width(722) of the second dicing via a feedback of the dicing machine;
Kawashima disclose using a bevel knife(20)[0006] of a dicing machine to perform a second dicing in an inactive area of the wafer(10), wherein, before the second dicing, the bevel knife is raised to a preset height[0121] to compensate for a thickness difference of the wafer in the inactive area and the dicing lane(Tr); obtaining a wafer cut width(Tb) of the second dicing via a feedback of the dicing machine(since the dicing has direction this may be interpreted as feedback);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to apply the teachings of Kawashima to the teachings of Klingbeil in order to have the dicing position is improved and the occurrence of a chip or a crack in the semiconductor chip surface is prevented [0005, Kawashima].
Re claim 2 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein the wafer(104) includes a wafer(104) body and a passivation layer formed on the wafer(104) body.
Re claim 3 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein a blade of the bevel knife(712) has a bevel angle of 63
Re claim 4 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein the inactive area is located at an edge of the wafer(104).
Re claim 5 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein the preset height is equal to a thickness of the passivation layer of the wafer(104) plus a depth of the dicing lane(street)[0030].
Re claim 6 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein a wafer(104) cut width(722) of the third dicing is equal to the wafer(104) cut width(722) of the second dicing.
Re claim 7 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, wherein the first dicing(614), the second dicing and the third dicing do not cut off the wafer(104).
Re claim 8 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 1, further comprising: using a right-angle knife of the dicing machine to perform a fourth dicing at a position of the third dicing to cut off the wafer(104).
Re claim 9 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 8, wherein a plurality of electronic elements(30) are formed in the wafer(104), and the wafer(104) dicing method further comprises: performing the first dicing(614), the second dicing, the third dicing and the fourth dicing between the electronic elements(30) to separate the plurality of electronic elements(30) from the wafer(104).
Re claim 10 Klingbeil and Kawashima disclose the wafer(104) dicing method of claim 9, wherein each of the electronic elements(30) includes an active element and/or a passive element.
Conclusion
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/PATRICIA D VALENZUELA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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