Wafer Tape-Mounting System

Wafer tape-mounting and tape-removal systems bracket the dicing step on either side — mounting applies the adhesive dicing tape that holds a wafer together and flat through the cutting process, and removal strips that same tape away once individual dies are ready to be picked and placed.

The tape's job during dicing is holding every single die exactly in its original position relative to its neighbors, which matters because singulation physically separates the dies while the wafer as a whole still needs to stay intact enough to handle. Without the tape, a diced wafer would simply fall apart into hundreds or thousands of loose, unordered individual dies the instant the last cut finishes; the adhesive tape, stretched taut across a rigid frame, keeps every die held in its exact original grid position even after it's been physically separated from its neighbors, which is what lets automated pick-and-place equipment find and retrieve each die from a known, predictable location afterward.

Tape removal has to be just as carefully engineered as mounting, because residual adhesive left on the die is a contamination problem that follows it into every later assembly step. Some dicing tapes are UV-curable specifically so the adhesive's tack dramatically weakens under UV exposure right before removal, letting the tape release cleanly without pulling adhesive residue onto the die or damaging fragile backside features; choosing a tape chemistry that releases cleanly at removal is as much a part of the tape selection decision as choosing one that holds well enough during the actual dicing cut.

Tape mounting and removal frame the dicing step on both sides with the same underlying job — keeping every die in a known, predictable position through a process that physically separates it from its neighbors, then letting go cleanly enough that pick-and-place equipment can retrieve each die without inheriting any adhesive contamination.