Study on Ductile-To-Brittle Transition Behavior in Fixed Diamond Abrasive Wire Sawing Process of Monocrystalline Silicon Ingot

Abstract

- Monocrystalline silicon has become one of the most popular semiconductor materials for diverse industrial applications on account of its exceptional physical. As one of the initial steps of the monocrystalline silicon wafer manufacturing process, fixed diamond abrasive wire sawing is widely used in the slicing process because it provides faster, cleaner, increased size of the ingot as well as decreased the sawn kerf loss when compared with slurry wire sawing process. However, challenges arise from monocrystalline silicon's intrinsic hardness and brittleness, often resulting in subsurface cracks and micro-cracks on the surfaces of as-sawn wafers. To overcome these obstacles, this study employed a ductile regime machining technique applied to the fixed diamond abrasive wire sawing process. Moreover, this study calibrated accurately specific cutting energy consumption to remove material in ductile mode at the ductile to brittle transition point, which is used as a reference value for optimizing experimental parameters during the verification process. The findings of this study not only enhance our understanding of the mechanism behind the removal of brittle materials in a ductile manner but also serve as an experimental benchmark for achieving crack-free and subsurface damage-free monocrystalline silicon wafers through fixed diamond abrasive wire sawing processes.