Determination of Surface Damage in the Grinding of Silicon Wafers

Grinding as one of the important processes for silicon manufacturing industry is the first step to reduce the cutting-caused surface-damage, which is one of key parameters determining the surface quality of silicon wafers. To understand the evolution of surface damage in grinding process, the ball-dimple technique developed for the measurement of the subsurface damage of ground glasses was applied to characterize the surface damage of silicon wafers created in the grinding process. The surface damage increases with abrasive size, which associates with the formation and propagation of surface cracks. Fracture mechanics due to the indentation of sharp indenters was used to exploit the connection between the surface damage and the process parameters. Microindentation was used to evaluate the near-surface elastic behavior of the ground silicon wafers.