Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for reducing damage caused by defects from a scribe lane of an integrated circuit, which may arise during or after a silicon wafer is singulated into separate integrated circuits. An integrated circuit may include an active area and a scribe lane. The scribe lane may include a crack energy release zone or a crack take-off zone, or both. The crack energy release zone may dissipate fracture energy in an event that a crack were to form in the scribe lane. The crack take-off zone may, in the event that the crack were to form in the scribe lane, guide the crack out of a surface of the integrated circuit in the crack take-off zone.