PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16020577
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2019-01
Patent Classification: ["438", "460000"]

Abstract:
A wafer processing method for processing a wafer having devices on the front side is provided. The wafer processing method includes a back grinding step of grinding the wafer to form a recess and an annular reinforcing portion surrounding the recess on the back side of the wafer, and a dividing step of cutting the wafer along division lines formed on the front side of the wafer. In the back grinding step, a taper surface is formed between the bottom surface of the recess and the annular reinforcing portion. The taper surface is inclined with respect to a direction perpendicular to the bottom surface of the recess. In the dividing step, a cutting blade is lowered to start cutting at a position radially inside the outer circumference of the wafer and is subsequently raised to stop cutting at another position radially inside the outer circumference of the wafer.

Claim (Index 1):
A wafer processing method for processing a wafer having a front side and a back side opposite to said front side, said front side of said wafer having a device area and a peripheral marginal area surrounding said device area, a plurality of crossing division lines being formed on said front side of said wafer to thereby define a plurality of separate regions in each of which a plurality of devices are formed, said wafer processing method comprising:\n a back grinding step of grinding said back side of said wafer in a central area corresponding to said device area of said front side to thereby form a recess having a bottom surface in said central area of said back side and also form an annular reinforcing portion surrounding said recess; a dicing tape attaching step of attaching a dicing tape to said back side of said wafer; and a dividing step of cutting said wafer along said division lines from said front side of said wafer by using a cutting blade to thereby divide said wafer into a plurality of individual device chips each corresponding to said devices; said back grinding step including the step of forming a taper surface between the bottom surface of said recess and said annular reinforcing portion so that said taper surface connects the bottom surface of said recess and said annular reinforcing portion and said taper surface is inclined with respect to a direction perpendicular to the bottom surface of said recess; said dividing step including the steps of relatively moving said cutting blade and said wafer along a predetermined one of said division lines and lowering said cutting blade toward said wafer to start cutting of said wafer at one end of said predetermined division line radially inside the outer circumference of said wafer, whereas raising said cutting blade from said wafer to stop cutting of said wafer at the other end of said predetermined division line radially inside the outer circumference of said wafer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 3.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.6
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['14013965', '12490848', '12542270', '14504059', '14707636']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8709168066750083
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4935837471370546
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8331835007212129
- Mean Citation Score: 266.26425
- Max Citation Score: 271.05136
- Similarity Product: 233.1131884807968

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test