Wafer dicing or sawing services are available to Stanford University researchers at the Ginzton Applied Physics Lab Crystal shop. Commercial services are also available locally. One recommended commercial source is American Precision Dicing (contact person: Paul Moran 408-254-1600)

For laser dicing (Thanks Kelvin!):

Laserod www.laserod.com
Uses predominantly YAG-lasers and focuses on laser micromaching. Says they do this regularly for many large companies. Normal issues of heat affected zone, debris field, etc are all still relevant.

Resonetics www.resonetics.com
A more general company that offers various forms of laser machining for various stages of microelectronics. They have a wider variety of lasers (CO2, excimer, solid state) and also have a laser micromachining group.

Oxford Lasers www.oxfordlasers.com
Another laser micromachining company. However, they are based in England and very busy hence long lead times. Sounded promising but logistics were daunting.

Gemcity Engineering www.gemcity.com
They are an American representative for Synova, a Swiss company that has a water-jet guided laser technology that looks very promising since it has no heat affected zone specifcally for laser dicing. There is information on that website including an interesting paper. The technology is limited to thin substrate though. For silicon, the upper limit is 400 um or so with an optimal thickness of 100-250 um or maybe 300 at a stretch. By 400 um the quality has deteriorated substantially.

There were also a bunch of other companies that I found such as XSIL and ALSI and got recommendations for from lab members such as Advanced Laser Cutting, CCT Laser Services and Exitech. Of the few that are directly aimed at laser dicing, all are MUCH more interested in selling machines than offering services and the laser micromachining vendors seem to be willing to try anything so "Caveat Emptor."

More laser dicing:

Lasair Design offers ASIC design as well as laser micromachining services. Check out www.lasair.net.