Patent ID: 6095897
Filing Date: 2000-08-01
Classification: B23Q,B24B,H01L

Abstract:
A grinding machine for edge grinding disc-like wafers which includes a vacuum chuck workhead carrying wafers to be edge ground, a grooved grinding wheel carried on a wheelhead and including means to engage the edge of a water in the groove, transport means for mounting and demounting wafers before and after grinding, an inspection station containing a second vacuum chuck on which ground wafers are mounted for inspecting the edge of the wafers after grinding, a housing containing a third vacuum chuck intermediate the workhead and the inspection station to which the transport means conveys the ground wafers after grinding for mounting of the said third vacuum chuck in the housing, a jet of fluid in the housing including means to firstly wash a wafer mounted on the said third chuck with water under pressure and including means to secondly direct air under pressure towards the face and edge regions of the wafer mounted on the said third chuck, and the transport means serving to transfer the wafers from the housings to said second vacuum chuck in the inspection station after being subjected to the jet of fluid.