Title: Measurement of local contact zone forces in rotational grinding of silicon wafers

Authors: Dietmar Pähler

Addresses: European Grinding Technology Centre, Saint-Gobain Diamantwerkzeuge GmbH – Co. KG, Schützenwall 13-17 22844 Norderstedt, Germany

Abstract: For a first-time assessment of the local process forces in rotational grinding, a three-component piezo sensor is integrated under a segment of a resin-bond D3 cup grinding wheel. The signals are amplified in the rotating system and telemetrically transferred to an external receiver. Industrially, common spindle speeds of up to 5,000 min^–1 were achieved by conclusive optimisation of the tool|s static-dynamic behaviour. The system can detect even minute force variations in dependence on the process parameters and the relative position of the cutting speed to the crystal main axes. 200 mm (100)-oriented Si wafers are used due to its importance for IC fabrication. The normal and tangential forces increase with an increase in feed rate and radius and decrease with cutting speed. A direction dependence of the process forces can be determined, with force maxima and minima occurring for cutting directions parallel to <110> and <100>, respectively. Areas with high and low process forces coincide well with the areas of high and low subsurface damage (SSD) depths, respectively.

Keywords: rotational grinding; silicon wafers; wafer fabrication; grinding forces; local forces; local contact zone; crystal anisotropy; sub-surface damage; piezo sensors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2011.044090

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2011 Vol.4 No.6, pp.511 - 539

Received: 06 Oct 2010
Accepted: 15 Jan 2011
Published online: 07 Mar 2015 *

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