Non-contact grinding/thinning of silicon carbide wafer by pure EDM using a rotary cup wheel electrode

The significantly increased stability of third-generation semiconductors, both mechanically and chemically, presents a significant challenge to traditional wafer grinding. This study develops pure electrical discharge machining as an alternative for non-contact wafer grinding and thinning to achieve high precision and low cost. This method employs a copper-made rotary cup wheel as the tool electrode to replace the conventional diamond wheel to realize electrical discharge grinding. A prototype is built to evaluate the new process with single-crystal SiC. Aiming at ultra-precision machining, the material response of SiC to both single and consecutive discharge is elucidated. The influencing mechanism of pulse conditions on hard, brittle crystalline SiC material is demonstrated via experiments and simulation. Further, the material removal behavior, grinding stability, surface integrity, wafer shape accuracy, and process-induced subsurface damage are comprehensively investigated via single and consecutive discharge experiments under various conditions. In addition, the extreme precision that is achievable by contemporary EDM technology is explored. As a result, a 30 μm thin Φ20 mm SiC wafer with a subsurface damaged layer <1 μm was obtained, showing the potential of EDM for the processing of third-generation semiconductor wafers.