The process of manufacturing semiconductors is similar to that of making business cards.

In the case of business cards, the first step is to finalize a design, followed by printing several copies of the design on a large sheet of paper. Finally, the printed matter is cut to produce individual business cards.

The semiconductor manufacturing process is similar. Semiconductor manufacturing is divided into design, front-end, and back-end processes, with the design process being the design and the front-end process being printing. The next step was to cut the samples into pieces.

Semiconductors undergo a design process, and large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) are created on silicon wafers in the front-end process. The integrated circuit was then cut into individual chips using a back-end process. In this paper, we discuss the back-end process.

Click here for an article on "Front-end Process".

In the back-end process, the semiconductor is cut from the wafer and converted into a product. In the front-end process, large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits with hundreds of semiconductors lined up on a wafer made from silicon ingots are created. In the back-end process, these integrated circuits are cut out individually and processed in various ways so that they can be used as products.

The back-end processing is as follows:

• Dicing: The wafer was cut with a diamond blade and separated into individual chips. In the dicing process, the wafer was attached to a dicing tape, and a rotating circular diamond blade was used to separate the semiconductors while spraying ultrapure water.

  In addition to the diamond blade method, there are other methods of dicing, such as the laser method, which cuts with a laser; the scribe method, which cuts by inserting scratch lines into the wafer to cause cracks; and the plasma dicing method, which uses etching with plasma to separate the wafer.

  If dicing tape is used, the tape holding the wafer in place must not be cut. After cutting, the dicing tape was stretched to create a clearance between the chips to facilitate removal and other operations.

• Wire bonding: The chip is fixed to the lead frame (die bonding). A lead frame is a thin metal support for a chip that serves as a terminal for mounting a semiconductor on a board.

  Some lead frames can diffuse heat, and in some cases, such as in the manufacture of power semiconductors, they are mounted on heat sinks instead of lead frames. In die bonding, adhesives such as silver paste are used.

  After die bonding, the wire-bonding process connects the chip to the lead frame with a thin gold wire. This allowed the chip to be wired through the lead frame.

• Molding: Chips are very delicate products that can be affected by scratches, shocks, dust, and magnetism. Therefore, the chip was encased in epoxy resin to protect it from external factors. This is called molding or packaging.

  However, in recent years, smaller semiconductors have been required as the products have become smaller. The answer is bare dies, which are semiconductors that have not yet been packaged. The advantage of bare dies is that they can be stacked on a substrate in three dimensions; however, their chip yield is poor.

After dicing, wire bonding, and molding, semiconductor products undergo an inspection process before being shipped.