Etching in combination with other processing techniques to facilitate alignment of a die in a system and structures formed thereby
View Patent ↗Etching in combination with other processing techniques is used to facilitate alignment of an optical die in an optical system. The optical dies are formed on a wafer level and need to be singulated for use in the optical system. The formation of a precise edge from etching allows more accurate alignment of the optical die in the optical system. The other processing techniques include dicing, sawing, cleaving, breaking and thinning.
1. A method of integrating an optical element in an optical system comprising:
forming a plurality of optical elements on a top surface of a substrate:
etching a separation well having etched edges in at least one of the top surface of the substrate and a bottom surface of a substrate for each optical element;
completing separation through the separation well using a non-etching technique to form singulated optical elements; and
aligning a singulated optical element with the optical system using an etched edge.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a separation well is formed on both the top and bottom surfaces of the substrate.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before said completing separation, securing another substrate to the substrate.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before said completing separation, securing a corresponding plurality of dies to the substrate.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said etching is performed before said forming.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said completing separation includes breaking the substrate along the separation wells.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said completing separation includes dicing along the separation wells.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said dicing includes dicing through the separation wells using a dicing blade narrower than the separation wells.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said dicing includes dicing through the substrate on the surface opposite the separation wells using a dicing blade wider than the separation wells.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said completing separating includes thinning the substrate.
11. A method of creating a plurality of optical elements comprising:
forming a plurality of optical elements on a top surface of a substrate;
etching a corresponding plurality of separation wells on the top surface;
thinning the substrate from a back surface of the substrate, the combination of the thinning and etching singulate the optical elements.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein during completion of the singulating, the optical elements are provided on a support structure.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the etching occurs before the thinning.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the etching and the forming are simultaneous.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the etching occurs after the thinning.