Patent ID: 7112470

Claim:
A method for chip separation, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a semiconductor substrate; (b) forming first and second device regions in and at top of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the first and second device regions are separated by a semiconductor border region of the semiconductor substrate; (c) forming N interconnect layers, in turn, directly above the semiconductor border region and the first and second device regions, wherein N is a positive integer greater than one, wherein each layer of the N interconnect layers comprises an etchable portion directly above the semiconductor border region, wherein the etchable portions of the N interconnect layers form a continuous etchable block directly above the semiconductor border region, and wherein the entire continuous etchable block comprises essentially a same material throughout the entire continuous etchable block; (d) removing the continuous etchable block by etching; and (e) cutting with a laser through the semiconductor border region via an empty space of the removed continuous etchable block, wherein the continuous etchable block comprises copper.