Patent ID: 8518730

Claim:
A sapphire wafer dividing method for dividing a sapphire wafer along a plurality of crossing division lines, said sapphire wafer having a light emitting layer on the front side, said light emitting layer being partitioned by said division lines to define a plurality of regions where a plurality of light emitting devices are respectively formed, said sapphire wafer dividing method comprising: a modified layer forming step of applying a laser beam having a transmission wavelength to said sapphire wafer from the back side of said sapphire wafer along said plurality of crossing division lines to thereby form a plurality of modified layers inside said sapphire wafer along said plurality of crossing division lines; a cut groove forming step of cutting said sapphire wafer from the back side thereof by using a cutting blade to thereby form a plurality of cut grooves along said plurality of crossing division lines, thereby chamfering said back side of said sapphire wafer on each light emitting device; and a dividing step of dividing said sapphire wafer into said individual light emitting devices along said plurality of crossing division lines from said plurality of modified layers as a division start point after performing said modified layer forming step and said cut groove forming step.