Patent ID: 8104385

Claim:
A brittle workpiece splitting system for splitting a substrate that is brittle by locally heating the substrate to cause a crack in the substrate via thermal stress induced in the substrate, said brittle workpiece splitting system comprising: a substrate holding mechanism that holds the substrate; and a processing unit that splits the substrate held by the substrate holding mechanism by irradiating the substrate with a laser beam to locally heat the substrate, wherein the substrate holding mechanism and the processing unit move relative to each other so that a region of the substrate to be locally heated by the processing unit moves along an intended split line on the substrate, wherein the substrate holding mechanism includes an edge clamper adapted to clamp an edge part of the substrate on opposite surfaces of the edge part, and a support member for supporting the substrate thereon from a surface of the substrate at a predetermined height, the support member being disposed on a first side of the surface of the substrate that is opposite a second side of the surface of the substrate whereon the edge clamper is clamped, the first and second sides of the substrate being opposite each other with respect to the intended split line, which is parallel to the edge part of the substrate, wherein at least a part of the edge clamper, which contacts the substrate, includes an elastic material having high rigidity and a Young's modulus ranging from 300 MPa to 1300 MPa, wherein a part of the support member, which contacts the substrate, includes a plurality of deformable members that elastically deforms horizontally to permit a horizontal movement of the substrate in a horizontal plane when the substrate is split, and wherein the support member supports the substrate so as to be horizontally movable for displacement in an extended plane of the substrate when the substrate is split.