Ultraprecision grinding of silicon wafers using a newly developed diamond wheel

The damaged layer of 160 nm in thickness is generated on a silicon (Si) wafer, which is the thinnest damaged layer ground by a conventional diamond wheel. This means that the nanoscale damaged layer can not be gained by a traditional diamond wheel. In this study, a novel vitrified diamond wheel is developed. A 96 nm thick damaged layer is obtained by the diamond wheel developed at a feed rate of 15 µm/min, which is the 60% of the limitation induced by a traditional diamond wheel. The damaged layer of 96 nm in thickness consists of an 82 nm amorphous layer at the top, followed by a 14 nm damage crystalline layer underneath. There are no contaminations on the ground Si wafers induced by the novel diamond wheel, beside silicon oxides, which is confirmed by energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectra. The diamond wheel has a good vitrified effect, consisting of only diamond and ceria crystalline peaks, which is identified by XRD. Porous microstructure of the diamond wheel is characterized by the field emission scanning electron microscopy.