Patent ID: 7601051

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: (a) preparing a workpiece including a semiconductor wafer having a main surface on which semiconductor elements are formed, a protective layer formed on the main surface, and electrodes formed on the protective layer; (b) providing a grind tape on an entire surface of the workpiece on which the electrodes are formed; (c) preparing a grinding machine having a chucking table having a chucking area and a grinder head, the grinder head including, (i) a spinning disk rotating about a rotation axis, and (ii) a plurality of grindstones, which are circularly arranged on a surface of the spinning disk, whereby a slit is created between two adjacent grindstones, (d) affixing the workpiece in the chucking area of the chucking table, whereby a back surface of the workpiece is exposed; (e) grinding the workpiece from the back surface thereof; and (f) dividing the ground workpiece into a plurality of individual devices, wherein the two adjacent grindstones include a first grindstone and a second grindstone and, while grinding the workpiece, the first grindstone comes in contact with an edge of the workpiece, and then the second grindstone comes in contact with the edge of the workpiece, and wherein the slit between the two adjacent grindstones is linear shaped and angled at an angle set to be between 30 and 60 degrees in a direction of rotation of the spinning disk from a line passing through the rotation axis and has a certain width, such that the second grindstone starts to come in contact with the edge of the workpiece before the first grindstone loses contact with the edge wherein the slit between the two adjacent grindstones is in such a shape that a line connecting a rotation axis of the spinning disk and the slit is unable to pass through the slit without contacting either the first grindstone or the second grindstone.