US Patent 7896047 Semiconductor wafer mount apparatus

A grinding unit grinds an annular convex portion formed at an outer periphery of a back face of a wafer such that the wafer has a uniform thickness. After such process, a robot arm of a transport unit transports the wafer to an inspection unit for inspecting occurrence of damage at the wafer. Then, the robot arm transports the wafer without damage to a mount frame preparation unit. Herein, the wafer is joined to a ring frame through a dicing tape, and then a protective tape is separated from a front face of the wafer. Thus, a mount frame is prepared.