Prodn. of semiconductor device with several chips in wafer - provides thin wafer sections for deposition of chips with connecting strips on thicker sections

The chips produced in the semiconductor wafer have each a pn-junction and are spaced from each other in horizontal and vertical rows. Prior to formation of different semiconductor chips, the sections of the wafer, in which the chips are to be formed, are thinner than the remaining chip sections. The thicker sections remain as a number of connecting strips in a checkerboard or grid pattern. Within the regions surrounded by the connecting strips are formed several mesa ribs for each section in the form of a circular or closed cloops after the formation of the individual semiconductor chips. The mesa ribs separate a part of the respective chip pn-junction from the adjacent pn-junction parts. Finally the different semiconductor chips are separated.