Experimental Study on the Influence of Wire-Saw Wear on Cutting Force and Silicon Wafer Surface

Abstract

Hard and brittle materials such as monocrystalline silicon still occupy an important position in the semiconductor industry, but hard and brittle materials are difficult to process because of their physical properties. Fixed-diamond abrasive wire-saw cutting is the most widely used method for slicing hard and brittle materials. The diamond abrasive particles on the wire saw wear to a certain extent, which affects the cutting force and wafer surface quality in the cutting process. In this experiment, keeping all the given parameters unchanged, a square silicon ingot is cut repeatedly with a consolidated diamond abrasive wire saw until the wire saw breaks. The experimental results show that the cutting force decreases with the increase in cutting times in the stable grinding stage. The wear of abrasive particles starts at the edges and corners, and the macro failure mode of the wire saw is fatigue fracture. The fluctuation of the wafer surface profile gradually decreases. The surface roughness of wafer is steady during the wear steady stage, and the large damage pits on the wafer surface are reduced in the whole process of cutting.

Influence of Diamond Wire Saw Processing Parameters on the Sawn Surface Characteristics of Silicon Nitride Ceramics

“…On the one hand, Si 3 N 4 ceramics are prone to brittle fracture when cutting, and the discontinuous chips result in brittle pits on the machined surface. On the other hand, due to the vibration of the saw wire in cutting [ 9 , 17 ] and the uneven size of the abrasive grains on the diamond saw wire surface [ 8 ], then the cut depths of abrasive grains are inconsistent at different positions of the wire surface, which results in an uneven surface. Numerous studies have shown that when the depth of abrasive cutting of hard-brittle materials is below the critical cutting depth, the material can be removed in a ductile manner to obtain high-quality machined surfaces [ 27 , 28 ].…”

“…In addition, laser cutting causes relatively deep thermal damage layers on the surface and subsurface of the ceramic substrate and slice warpage. In recent years, diamond wire saw slicing technology has been widely used for slicing hard-brittle materials such as photovoltaic and semiconductor silicon crystals [ 8 , 9 ], silicon carbide crystals [ 10 ], sapphire [ 11 , 12 ], quartz [ 13 ] and magnetic materials [ 14 ] due to the advantages of its high sawing performance and small kerf loss. For the slicing processing of Si 3 N 4 ceramics, the diamond wire saw slicing technology has great application potential.…”

Fixed-Diamond Abrasive Wire-Saw Cutting Force Modeling Based on Changes in Contact Arc Lengths

“…In the experiment, a wire saw cuts many wafers. According to the research in [ 31 ], the wear state of abrasive particles can affect the cutting force in the experiment, and abrasive wear is not considered in the simulation. In the early stage of abrasive wear, there is a small change in cutting force, while in the stable wear stage, cutting force decreases; moreover, in the later stage of wear, there is a significant change in cutting force.…”