Patent ID: 8822882

Claim:
A method for manufacturing die from a sapphire substrate, comprising; mounting the sapphire substrate on a stage, the sapphire substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, the bottom surface facing the stage; coupling pulses of laser energy having a wavelength between about 150 and about 560 nanometers at a repetition rate of greater than 5 kHz, directly into the top surface of the sapphire substrate by absorption sufficient to induce ablation of sapphire at the top surface, the pulses having a power density of less than 10 GW/cm 2 per pulse, a spot size, and a repetition rate inducing absorption of the laser energy by the sapphire substrate; causing the laser energy to impact the sapphire substrate in a scribe pattern to cut scribe lines in the sapphire substrate; and separating die defined by the scribe pattern from the sapphire substrate.