Abstract
The manufacturing costs of semiconductor products such as silicon wafers can be reduced by decreasing the kerf loss. In addition, a decrease in the kerf loss leads to an effective utilization of rare materials, which is environmentally beneficial from the viewpoint of saving resources. This study aims to reduce the kerf loss during slicing hard and brittle materials. Therefore, the possibility of using an extremely thin metal foil blade instead of a wire tool in slicing was examined. Initially, grooving characteristics using a metal foil blade (thickness: 50 μm or less) was investigated. The main conclusions are that grooving with a metal foil blade is possible and kerf loss can be reduced. The groove depth tends to increase as the machining time and particle size of abrasives increase. The groove width is smaller when a thin metal foil blade is used and vice versa. However, if the abrasive particle size is too large, grooving becomes impossible. Since the wear of metal foil blade increases with an increase in the particle size of the abrasive, it is necessary to use an abrasive with a particle size that is suitable for the thickness of the metal foil blade.
Highlights
Multi-wire sawing is an excellent slicing method for hard and brittle materials, such as silicon ingots, magnetic materials, ceramics, and sapphire [1]
The diameters of the wire tool and particle size of the abrasives that are used for slicing greatly affect the volume of kerf loss
This study aims to drastically reduce the kerf loss by examining the possibility of a machining method that utilizes extremely thin metal foil blades instead of a wire tool
Summary
Multi-wire sawing is an excellent slicing method for hard and brittle materials, such as silicon ingots, magnetic materials, ceramics, and sapphire [1]. Multi-wire sawing has emerged as the mainstream slicing method for ingots with large diameter. When several thin layers are sliced from an ingot using a multi-wire saw, the volume of kerf loss is same or more than the volume of the wafers [5]. The diameters of the wire tool and particle size of the abrasives that are used for slicing greatly affect the volume of kerf loss. In other words, when the wire tool is thin and particle size is small, the kerf loss can be drastically reduced. The wire tool with a small diameter breaks during slicing. It is very difficult to further reduce the diameter of the wire tool
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