Patent ID: 7938930

Claim:
An apparatus for separating, from a semiconductor wafer, a support board joined to the semiconductor wafer through a double-faced adhesive tape, the apparatus comprising: an aligner for aligning the semiconductor wafer to which the support board is joined; a holding table on and by which the aligned semiconductor wafer is mounted and held; a separating mechanism for losing adhesive force of either one surface of the double-faced adhesive tape having an adhesive layer on an opposite surface whose adhesive force becomes lost under a different condition from the adhesive layer on the one surface, remaining the double-faced adhesive tape on either a surface of the semiconductor wafer or the support board joined thereto, and separating the support board from the semiconductor wafer mounted on and held by the holding table; a peeling mechanism for peeling off and removing the double-faced adhesive tape laminated on either the surface of the support board separated by the separating mechanism or the surface of the semiconductor wafer; a wafer collecting section for collecting the semiconductor wafer that has been subjected to the peeling process by the peeling mechanism; a support board collecting section for collecting the separated support board; a first transporting robot capable of turning upside down and swinging the held support board when transporting the semiconductor wafer to the aligner and the separating mechanism and, also, transporting the separated support board to the holding table and the support board collecting section; and a second transporting robot capable of swinging for holding and transporting the semiconductor wafer that has been subjected to the peeling process; wherein the first transporting robot and the second transporting robot are placed in parallel on an apparatus base; the aligner, the separating mechanism, and the support board collecting section are arranged along a turning radius of the first transporting robot; the separating mechanism and the wafer collecting section are arranged along a turning radius of the second transporting robot; and the holding table reciprocates on a line connecting the separating mechanism with the peeling mechanism.