A novel approach of mechanical chemical grinding

In this study, two diamond wheels are newly developed. A novel approach of mechanical chemical grinding (MCG) is proposed using the diamond wheel (C2) with ceria (CeO2) developed. A uniform wear layer of 48 nm in thickness is obtained on a silicon (Si) wafer ground by the C2 at a feed rate of 12 mu m/min, which is less than one third that formed by a conventional diamond wheel with mesh size of 5000. The uniform wear layer consists of a 40 nm amorphous layer at the top and an 8 nm damage crystalline layer beneath. Si, silica (SiO2) and SiOx are identified on all the ground Si wafers by energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectra. Only CeO2 and diamond are confirmed by XRD on the C2, indicating the perfect vitrified effect. CeO2, diamond and amorphous carbon are discerned by Raman spectra on the C2 at 466,1332 and 1430 cm(-1), respectively. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.