A new non-destructive method was developed to identify the grinding mode of silicon
wafers, which is based on the information of subsurface cracks extracted from the surface
topography of the ground silicon wafers measured with a 3D surface profiler. We examined
extensive measurement data of the surface topography of silicon wafers processed by single grain
grinding or real grinding operation, and our results show that the information about median cracks
could be captured if the lateral sampling interval of the 3D surface profiler is small enough, even if
the grain depth of cut is below 20nm. If the maximum valley of the measured surface topography is
approximately equal to the grain depth of cut, surface formation will be under ductile mode,
whereas, if the maximum valley is several times larger than the grain depth of cut, surface
formation will be under brittle mode. According to this criterion, silicon wafers ground by ductile
mode or brittle mode could be identified rapidly and conveniently. Experimental validation shows
that this method is accurate.