Dicing Process for 4H-SiC Wafers by Plasma Etching Using High-Pressure SF<sub>6</sub> Plasma with Metal Masks

Since SiC is hard and brittle, dicing by normal grinding process not only requires a long time for processing, but also reduces chip strength due to microcracks. The use of highly efficient and damage-free etching with high-pressure plasma as a chemical processing method for dicing rather than mechanical processing was investigated. The results of groove processing using a combination of a metal mask with slit-like apertures and plasma etching with high-pressure SF 6 plasma showed that the processing speed decreased with decreasing slit width and increasing groove depth. The results of electrostatic field calculations suggest that this is due to a decrease in plasma intensity caused by electric field decreasing.