Abstract: A semiconductor wafer dicing process is disclosed for dicing a wafer into individual dies, each die comprising one integrated circuit. The process comprises: disposing a coating upon the wafer; removing at least a portion of the coating to expose regions of the wafer, along which the wafer is to be diced, to form a workpiece; disposing the workpiece upon a platen within a processing chamber; plasma treating the workpiece with a set of plasma treatment conditions to etch a portion of the exposed regions of the wafer to form a wafer groove which extends laterally beneath the coating to form an undercut; and plasma etching the workpiece with a set of plasma etch conditions, which are different to the plasma treatment conditions, to etch through the wafer and dice the wafer along the wafer groove.

Abstract: A method is for plasma etching one or more dicing lanes in a silicon substrate having a backside metal layer attached thereto. The method includes performing a main etch using a cyclical plasma etch process in which a deposition step and an etch step are alternately repeated to produce dicing lanes having scalloped sidewalls, and switching to performing a secondary etch using a cyclical plasma etch process in which a deposition step and an etch step are alternately repeated until the backside metal layer is reached. The amount of silicon removed in one etch step during the secondary etch is half or less than half of the amount of silicon removed in one etch step during the main etch.

Abstract: A method is for plasma etching one or more dicing lanes in a silicon substrate having a backside metal layer attached thereto. The method includes performing a main etch using a cyclical plasma etch process in which a deposition step and an etch step are alternately repeated to produce dicing lanes having scalloped sidewalls, and switching to performing a secondary etch using a cyclical plasma etch process in which a deposition step and an etch step are alternately repeated until the backside metal layer is reached. The amount of silicon removed in one etch step during the secondary etch is half or less than half of the amount of silicon removed in one etch step during the main etch.

Abstract: A method for reducing or removing organic and/or inorganic contamination from a vacuum system of imaging and analytical devices, wherein at least a portion of the area of the inner surface of the vacuum space of the vacuum system is provided with a photocatalytic layer, at least a portion of this photocatalytic layer being cooled to a temperature in the range of 0 K to 280 K, whereby the photocatalytic layer is afterwards at least partially irradiated by electromagnetic radiation, which activates a photocatalytic reaction of the photocatalytic layer with the adsorbed gases of the atmosphere of the inner vacuum space of the vacuum system, where this reaction decomposes the contaminants, reducing their concentration and/or the concentration of water in the inner vacuum space of the vacuum system.

Abstract: A system uses number of analytical devices such as an electron microscope a Raman microscope, an ion beam column and a scanning probe microscope for sample analysis concurrent, consecutive or with the mutual correlation of the analysis performed by the different devices in the same sample area using the connection of the Raman microscope optical objective lens and objective manipulator, that significantly reduces time needed for analyzing by Raman microscope together with other devices and maintains high quality of the sensed signals comparable to stand alone analytical devices.

Abstract: A method for the treatment of inner surfaces of vacuum components and the device for carrying it out which enables the reduction of undesirable organic and inorganic contamination of vacuum systems not only in those that are being produced, but also enables the reduction of contamination in systems that are already in use, such as SEM, TEM, SEM-FIB, XPS, MALDI, SIMS and other analytical and inspection techniques. The proposed method for contaminant treatment derives benefit from a photocatalytic process, which is actually a chemical decomposition of contaminants using a photocatalytic material and electromagnetic radiation, the photocatalytic material being cooled simultaneously to a low temperature. The photocatalytic material is applied to the walls of the vacuum system or vacuum units, which are included in the system, in the form of a layer.