Appeal No. 2004-0999
Application No. 09/997,086
integrated circuitry 102 from dicing streets 104. Within the
dicing streets 104, there are typically test structures that are
composed of the same materials as the other parts of the
interconnect layer 108. Between these test structures in the
dicing street 104 and the guard ring 106 may be a region or
regions composed entirely of dielectric material with no
conductive material. In the embodiments that comprise two
trenches, these trenches may be placed such that they fall
entirely within the regions composed entirely of dielectric
material. See Appellants' specification, page 6, line 18 through
page 7, line 6.
Appellants' embodiment includes using a laser to ablate
away two trenches (first trench 118 and second trench 118') on
each of the dicing streets 104 (both row and column). The
first trench 118 and the second trench 118' are positioned to
reside on either side of the dicing street 104 where a saw will
cut when dicing the microelectronic device wafer 100 as shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3. The first trench 118 and the second trench 118'
preferably extend completely through the interconnect layer 108.
See Appellants' specification, page 7, lines 7-16.
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