Patent ID: 8551817

Claim:
A semiconductor substrate cutting method for cutting a semiconductor substrate having a front face formed with a plurality of functional devices into individual functional devices, so as to manufacture a semiconductor device comprising at least one of the functional devices, the method comprising the steps of: attaching a protective member to the front face of the semiconductor substrate, such that the functional devices are covered; irradiating the semiconductor substrate with laser light while positioning a light-converging point within the semiconductor substrate with a rear face of the semiconductor substrate acting as a laser light incident face after attaching the protective member, so as to form a plurality of modified regions, each modified region forming a starting point region for cutting along each of a plurality of lines along which the semiconductor substrate is to be cut, respectively, the lines set like a grid running between neighboring functional devices, inside by a predetermined distance from the laser light incident face, and cutting the semiconductor substrate into a plurality of semiconductor chips from the starting point regions along each of the lines in the grid; expanding an expandable holding member attached to an entirety of rear faces of the semiconductor chips by way of a die bonding resin layer, and thereby cutting the die bonding resin layer along each of cut surfaces of the semiconductor chips after forming the starting point regions, so as to obtain a the semiconductor chips each having a front face formed with a functional device and having a cut piece of the die bonding resin layer in close contact with the rear face thereof, wherein the die bonding resin layer simultaneously begins to be separated into pieces at the same time the semiconductor chips are separated from each other in response to expanding of the holding member; and mounting each semiconductor chip onto a support body by way of the cut piece of the die bonding resin layer in close contact with the rear face thereof, so as to obtain the semiconductor device.