Extremely Thin Metal Foil Blades as Cutting Tools for Hard and Brittle Materials

Abstract

The manufacturing costs of semiconductor products such as silicon wafers can be reduced by decreasing the kerf loss. In addition, a decrease in the kerf loss leads to an effective utilization of rare materials, which is environmentally beneficial from the viewpoint of saving resources. This study aims to reduce the kerf loss during slicing hard and brittle materials. Therefore, the possibility of using an extremely thin metal foil blade instead of a wire tool in slicing was examined. Initially, grooving characteristics using a metal foil blade (thickness: 50 μm or less) was investigated. The main conclusions are that grooving with a metal foil blade is possible and kerf loss can be reduced. The groove depth tends to increase as the machining time and particle size of abrasives increase. The groove width is smaller when a thin metal foil blade is used and vice versa. However, if the abrasive particle size is too large, grooving becomes impossible. Since the wear of metal foil blade increases with an increase in the particle size of the abrasive, it is necessary to use an abrasive with a particle size that is suitable for the thickness of the metal foil blade.