Single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) wafers for use in semiconductor chip production are a next-generation material. SiC will be the power-saving, high-energy-transforming, and hightemperature working element of the future. However, SiC is a very difficult material to process because of its exceptional hardness and chemical stability. Conventional polishing takes an enormous amount of time, and is inefficient and very costly. An improved process is urgently needed to reduce cost and raise efficiency. In this paper, we present a diamond lapping wheel for SiC to improve the material removal rate. Four kinds of diamond wheel were fabricated using two types of binder material (resin and ceramic) and two sizes of diamond (1 and 6 μm). The surface roughness and material removal rates of SiC wafer samples, using each of the diamond laps, were investigated. The experimental results showed that the rate of material removal using the ceramic wheel binder was higher than that using the resin-bound wheels. In addition, the ceramic diamond wheel gave a better surface finish. These results clearly indicated that the diamond laps were effective and could be used for SiC lapping.

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