Saturday, July 13, 2013

Things To Know About Silicon Grinding

By Roxanne Cruz


Silicon grinding is important because the substance is a widely used material in the manufacturing process of integrated circuits, such as computer chips. The continuous demand for the product, at ever increasing qualities, means it can be very hard to satisfy demands. Research has been conducted into other processes to see whether anything about the way it is made can be changed to make it more efficient.

Silicon is an extremely important component in the making of semiconductor devices. These include types of digital circuits, such as microprocessors and include things like random access memory and read only memory. They are also one of the more crucial elements that go into manufacturing the transistor, which is a term first muted by Bell Telephone Labs in the 1940s.

As an indication as to how crucial silicon is in the making of semiconductor devices, more than 90% of them are made up of crystal silicone wafers. To further amplify this, it should be borne in mind that around one hundred and fifty million of the wafers are made annually. Therefore, quality and quantity of supplies is very important.

As part of the process, the crystal is prepared by first slicing into the material and then making sure it's flat. The process of flattening it is often called lapping but is known usually by the term grinding. It involves rotating a diamond wheel towards the wafer, which, although held in place, is also actually spinning too. Once this part is over, the process moves on to the polishing and etching phase, whereby upon completion it should be ready to use. These processes are all there for a specific reason, to get rid of the tiny imperfections which often show up on the surface of the substance, and even in its subsurface.

The presence of cracks on both the surface and subsurface is the curse of many a grinder. Because of imperfections persist in the grinding process, much of the wafer is actually removed during the grind. One method that might help put paid to this is using smaller diamond grains with which to grind the surface of the wafer, a method that has been tested in the past, with what some think are promising results.

Other techniques that can be used are what is called the electrolytic in-process dressing or ELID. The way it works is by continuously using smaller sizes of diamond to grind the wafers. It uses a technique called self-dressing, which simply means that the grinding wheel releases worn diamond grains and exposes the newer grains as part of a natural process, meaning without any outside interference.

Some think using smaller grains of diamonds is the answer to achieving better results. The problem is that the more minute the grain, the harder it becomes to manufacture a grinding wheel with an effective ability to self-dress. This where the ELID process is said by some to have an advantage.

Silicon grinding companies strive to improve the process surrounding the making of the product. Some say ELID is the answer as experiments have apparently shown that very small grains can be used to make up the grind wheel, and with less surface damage than the traditional grind. However, issues still remain, and for now it seems the conventional method achieves a flatter wafer and will therefore be the process of choice for the foreseeable future.




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