Scrap wafer regeneration by precise abrasive jet machining with novel composite abrasive for design of experiments

Abstract

Great quantities of silicon wafers have been used in the semiconductor industry, resulting in a shortage of raw materials required for wafer production. Unfortunately, conventional wafer regeneration processes still have some issues of machining properties. In this study a precise abrasive jet machining (AJM) method with a novel composite abrasive is employed to reduce the surface roughness of recycled wafers. Experiments designed using the Taguchi method was conducted for removal of patterns from the wafer surface to explore the impact of different processing parameters on surface quality and to optimize the combination of processing parameters. Experimental results show that the optimal parameters for achieving a smooth surface with minimum subsurface damage are composite abrasive coated SiC mesh of # 3000, impact angle of 30, stand-off distance of 70 mm, jet pressure of 0.4 MPa, and platform revolution of 250 r/min. With these parameters, all surface patterns can be removed completely with machining for 5 min. The electronic data systems (EDS) results prove that no residual elements exist on silicon wafer and surface roughness is reduced to 0.118 μm Ra, which cntributes to surface improvement and shortens the post-processing time required for silicon wafer regeneration.

Surface roughness of machined wood and advanced engineering materials and its prediction: A review

“…Traditional recycling still has challenges to address. Ke et al 49 performed abrasive jet machining to remove the patterns from recycled wafers and improve the roughness. With optimized process conditions, the patterns could be eliminated in a relatively short time, resulting in smooth surfaces and minimized sub-surface damage.…”

Development of a Novel Water Jet Polisher Using Soft Abrasives for Small Complex-Structure Heat Pipes of Aluminum Alloy Produced Using Additive Manufacturing

“…In this regard, the study of novel abrasive particles has received a lot of attention. Ke et al [29] used a new type of composite abrasive with different diameters of SiC particles coated with PS polymer for the jet polishing of silicon wafers, shortening the post-processing time required for silicon wafer regeneration. Yang et al [30] used dry ice particles to carry out jet experiments with different parameters on the surface of stainless steel electrode, and the roughness of the samples decreased from 0.0708 µm to 0.0395 µm after polishing.…”

Experimental and simulation approach of surface generation on K-80 alumina ceramic by recently developed sustainable FB-HAJM using novel nozzle design

“…Accurate prototype can be prepared using NTM processes when the work material is flexible enough for supporting the forces needed for cutting or grinding. Several computational as well as arithmetical approaches such as genetic algorithm (GA), 1,2 RSM, [3][4][5][6][7][8] particle swarm optimization (PSO), 9 artificial neural network (ANN), 11,12 technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), 13 Taguchi method [14][15][16] and principal component analysis (PCA) 17,18 have been implemented for parametric optimization in abrasive jet machining (AJM) process. K-60 alumina ceramic and quartz ceramic were used in newly developed FB-HAJM in order to determine the MRR and taper angle (TA) using stand-off-distance (SOD), air pressure and variable grain size of silicon carbide (SiC), as design parameters were chosen by Pradhan et al 19 CFD study was used in electrochemical slurry jet micro-machining 20 and abrasive slurry jet micro-machining (ASJM) 21,22 to predict particle impact conditions and measure the channel roughness due to various ductile erosion.…”