A new dry/wet process was developed for removing polyimide from die that had undergone a package lid seal temperature of 325 degrees C in ceramic packages. A characteristic translucent, glasslike residual film that remained after the O-2 dry etch was consistently removed by wet etching cycles. This removal technique has resulted in very clean die surface reproducibly without degrading the die’s electrical functionality. The effect on the dry/wet deprocess of polyimide cure temperature and of die physical parameters was also studied. It was found that this dry/wet deprocessing technique could be extended to remove polyimide that had experienced a temperature higher than the lid seal temperature used in the ceramic packaging process. For smaller die sizes with thinner polyimide film, a lower RIE power with slightly reduced processing steps can achieve the same results. A totally wet removal process using fuming nitric acid was also included for comparison.