Patent ID: 7964449

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor chip, comprising: a resist film formation step of forming a resist film on one surface of a semiconductor wafer in which a plurality of semiconductor elements are fabricated; a laser processing step of emitting a laser beam to boundary sections among the semiconductor elements of the resist film, to form in the resist film boundary grooves which partition the semiconductor elements from each other and to uncover a surface of the semiconductor surface in the boundary grooves; and a plasma etching step of etching the surface of the semiconductor wafer exposed in the boundary grooves by means of plasma of fluorine-based gas, to thus separate the semiconductor wafer into individual semiconductor chips along boundary grooves of the semiconductor wafer, wherein, after the laser processing step and before the plasma etching step, it is performed a boundary-groove-surface smoothing step for smoothing irregular surfaces of the boundary grooves generated in the laser processing step by means of plasma of oxygen gas or plasma of gas mixture containing oxygen as a primary ingredient.