Patent ID: 7857029

Claim:
An apparatus for joining a separating adhesive tape to a protective tape joined to a front face of a semiconductor wafer, the apparatus comprising: a semiconductor wafer having a back face on which an annular convex portion is formed along an outer periphery so as to surround a back-ground area and a flat concave portion is formed at an inner-diameter side of the annular convex portion; a holding table for holding said semiconductor wafer so as to come into contact with the annular convex portion formed on the back face of the semiconductor wafer, a surface of the holding table facing the flat concave portion being planar; a locking member for locking the outer periphery of the annular convex portion of the semiconductor wafer held by the holding table; fluid supply means for supplying fluid from a side of the holding table into a space defined between the back face of the semiconductor wafer and the holding table; tape supply means for supplying a separating adhesive tape toward a surface of a protective tape joined to the semiconductor wafer; and a tape joining unit allowing a joining member, which has a width larger than an outer diameter of the semiconductor wafer, to move from a first end to a second end of the semiconductor wafer such that the joining member presses on a non-adhesive surface of the adhesive tape, thereby pressing the adhesive tape against the surface of the protective tape, for joining the adhesive tape to the surface of the protective tape.