Fine grinding of silicon wafers

Silicon wafers are used for the production of most microchips. Various proc esses are needed to transfer a silicon crystal ingot into wafers. As one of such processes, surface grinding of silicon wafers has attracted attention among various investigators and a limited number of articles can be found in the literature. However, no published articles are available regarding f ine grinding of silicon wafers. In this paper, the uniqueness and the speci al requirements of the silicon wafer fine grinding process are introduced f irst. Then some experimental results on the fine grinding of silicon wafers are presented and discussed. Tests on different grinding wheels demonstrat e the importance of choosing the correct wheel and an illustration of the p roper selection of process parameters is included. Also discussed are the e ffects of the nozzle position and the flow rate of the grinding coolant. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.