Design and evaluation of soft abrasive grinding wheels for silicon wafers

Abstract

The objective of this study is to design and evaluate soft abrasive wheels for silicon wafer grinding. In this study, CeO2, SiO2, Fe2O3 and MgO soft abrasives are used in the design of soft abrasive grinding wheels. The soft abrasive grinding wheels are then used to grind silicon wafers and compared with diamond wheel grinding and chemomechanical polishing. This study demonstrates that the newly designed soft abrasive grinding wheels are generally superior to diamond wheel grinding or chemomechanical polishing in terms of wafer surface/subsurface quality, wheel dressability, grinding ratio and material removal rate. This study further identifies the MgO soft abrasive grinding wheel as the best of the four soft abrasive grinding wheels. Discussion is provided to explore material removal mechanisms, wheel dressing characteristics and wafer surface finish and quality of the newly designed soft abrasive grinding wheels.