Patent ID: 7700392

Claim:
A semiconductor laser device manufacturing method comprising: cutting a substrate by scanning, with an electron beam, a front side of the substrate on which a semiconductor laser structure has been formed so as to cause cracks which trigger said cutting of the substrate, said cutting being performed in an electron beam scanning chamber; depositing coating films on end faces of the cut substrates, the end faces having been exposed in said cutting of the substrate, said depositing being performed in a coating film deposition chamber; transferring the cut substrates from the electron beam scanning chamber to the coating film deposition chamber via a substrate transfer chamber which maintains a non-ambient atmosphere connected to both the electron beam scanning chamber and the coating film deposition chamber; and turning the cut substrates, in a non-ambient atmosphere, in a way that the end faces of the cut substrates are vertical to thickness directions of the coating films deposited in said depositing, wherein said cutting of the substrates includes cutting of the substrate into bar-shaped substrates by scanning the substrates with the electron beam several times in a way that scanning lines are straight and parallel, said depositing of the coating films includes depositing of the coating films on the end faces of the cut bar-shaped substrates, wherein said semiconductor laser device manufacturing method further comprises adhering an adhesive sheet to a back side of the substrate, wherein the back side is not to be scanned with the electron beam; and dividing apart the cut bar-shaped substrates by expanding the adhesive sheet, and wherein said turning of the cut substrates includes causing one of the end faces of each cut bar-shaped substrate to be parallel to a front side of the adhesive sheet by pressing upwardly a portion of the adhesive sheet adhered to the back side of each divided bar-shaped substrate, the portion being near the end face of each of the cut bar-shaped substrates.