Silicon (Si) is a fundamental material in the semiconductor industry. The advancement of semiconductor devices have offered convenience and comfort to our life. In order to raise productivity and economic efficiency, the semiconductor industry keeps looking for use of larger size Si wafers. The next generation wafer is expected to be sized as large as 450 mm in diameter. Many wafering processes including lapping, grinding and polishing have been studied and grinding technology stands out as the most promising process for large-size Si wafer manufacturing. In the current in-feed grinding scheme adopted for Si wafers, the wheel diameter used is generally equal to or larger than the wafer diameter. In turn, larger diameter wheels require larger size machine tools and production lines, which lead to increase in manufacturing costs. In this paper, both experiment and kinematical analysis have been carried out to investigate the feasibility of using small diameter grinding wheels to grind large size Si wafers, mainly focusing on the effects of wheel diameter on wafer geometry and surface roughness. The results show that both wheels generated a central convex profile on the wafer and the small wheel achieved a slightly better flatness than the large wheel. The surface roughness were similar one to another for most area of the wafer except the fringe around its edge. All these experimental results were predicable by the kinematic model established in this paper. Particularly, the kinematic analysis found that the cutting path made by small wheel with diameter equaling to the wafer radius was parallel each other at the fringe around wafer edge, which directly worsened the surface roughness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.