Semiconductor power devices are used in a wide range of fields, such as consumer electronics or the automotive industry. So far, power electronics has mainly relied on silicon as the standard material for these devices. However, due to the increasing demand for advanced power electronics, Silicon Carbide (SiC) is emerging to replace silicon. For many applications, SiC offers superior performance due to its high-temperature and high-voltage performance compared to the standard silicon devices.





Since SiC is almost as hard as diamond, separating wafers into its individual chips is a challenging process. Currently, mechanical blade dicing is most used for dicing SiC wafers. However, blade dicing suffers from a very low feed rate, low edge quality, and fast wear of the dicing blade. Especially with the transition to 150 mm or even 200 mm SiC wafers, blade dicing will most probably reach its limit because of these shortcomings.





There are three novel laser based dicing technologies that have the potential to replace the mechanical blade: ablation laser dicing, scribe and break, and sub-surface dicing and break. Determining the most suitable dicing technology is however a complex process during which many factors must be taken into consideration. Here, we will directly compare these three laser-based approaches and mechanical blade dicing and we will discuss a range of factors that play an important role, such as wafer design requirements, thickness of the material, throughput, and die strength potential. This comparison will provide a guideline for choosing the optimal separation technique for SiC wafers.