Material removal mechanism and crack propagation in single scratch and double scratch tests of single-crystal silicon carbide by abrasives on wire saw

Single-crystal silicon carbide is a promising semiconductor material widely applied in micro-electronics. However, its high hardness and brittleness make it difficult to be sliced into wafers by wire sawing technology. In this paper, both single scratch and double scratch tests are carried out on the (0001) surface of 4H-SiC by the abrasives on wire saw instead of using a standard indenter to obtain an in-depth understanding of the material removal mechanism and crack propagation in wire sawing. The scratching groove in single scratch tests is found to be composed of several small grooves because of the actual irregular shape of the abrasive. Stress analysis shows that this phenomenon has relatively small effects on the radial cracks propagating near the {1 (1) over bar 00}primary cleavage plane. Radial cracks play an important role in the process of material removal by means of the interaction between radial cracks and the interaction between radial cracks and lateral cracks in double scratch tests. Based on fracture mechanics, the variation of stress intensity factors (SIFs) at the tip of radial cracks with the separation distance between the two grooves is calculated. Results show that the values of SIFs increase with the decrease of the separation distance, which means that radial cracks are more easily to propagate when the separation distance decreases. The theoretical analysis agrees with the experimental observation.