For certain semiconductor dicing applications it is not possible or economically viable to use a laser full cut dicing process to dice through a wafer. This is typically the case when the wafer or substrate is too thick (typically >200um). For these type of wafer thicknesses typically a saw blade dicing process is used or other options are a stealth dicing technology or plasma dicing technology (DRIE or Bosch process). The problem when using these wafer singulation technologies is that the semiconductor wafers can have top layers which are sensitive to delamination and or cracking (e.g. SiO, Low-K or metals). For wafer technologies which use these type of top layer materials it is required to remove them prior to applying the saw blade process or others mentioned above. In this case a laser can be used to remove these top layers. ASMPT developed a laser process technology which derives from the multi beam concept. In this laser process we split the original laser beam into a matrix configuration (see picture) of laser beams. In this process flow first a trenching step is applied (refer to trenching page). As the stack of materials is increasing (15 – 20 um) many passes with a single row would be needed to achieve the required depth. Due to the multi beam concept we can create a matrix design with several rows behind each other. The matrix laser grooving process allows to achieve the required depth in a single pass. Similar as used in multi beam full cut dicing process, each beam in the matrix is low in power and all are working together to remove all the material without affecting or increasing the HAZ.