Method of dicing a wafer

1. A method of dicing a semiconductor wafer, the method comprising:

forming a layer stack on a first main surface of a substrate, the layer stack comprising a final passivation layer and a metal region at an intended lateral dicing location, wherein no seal ring is provided between adjacent chips of the semiconductor wafer;

forming a photoresist layer on the final passivation layer;

performing a photolithographic process to selectively remove the photoresist layer at a location that is substantially aligned to the metal region;

etching the final passivation layer at the location that is substantially aligned to the metal region due to the photolithographic process;

etching the metal region of the layer stack to expose the first main surface of the substrate at the intended lateral dicing location;

etching the substrate through an opening in the layer stack obtained during the etching of the metal region to obtain a trench structure in the substrate;

irradiating the substrate with a laser beam to locally modify the substrate between a bottom of the trench structure and a second main surface of the substrate opposite to the first main surface; and

singulating individual chips.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein etching the substrate comprises chemically wet etching the substrate through the opening in the layer stack obtained.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein etching the substrate comprises dry plasma etching the substrate through the opening in the layer stack obtained.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein irradiating the substrate comprises focusing the laser beam successively at a plurality of depths within the substrate to obtain a distributed or enlarged modified substrate region.