US Patent 7151045 Method for separating sapphire wafer into chips using dry-etching

A method for singulating a sapphire wafer, provided with semiconductor elements formed thereon, into unit chips includes (a) grinding a rear surface of the sapphire wafer so that the sapphire wafer has a designated thickness; (b) lapping the rear surface of the ground sapphire wafer so that the sapphire wafer has a designated thickness; (c) dry-etching the rear surface of the lapped sapphire wafer so that the sapphire wafer has a uniform thickness; and (d) scribing the rear surface of the dry-etched sapphire wafer.