Prediction of sawing force for single-crystal silicon carbide with fixed abrasive diamond wire saw

Fixed abrasive diamond wire saw has been used to cut hard-and-brittle materials into wafers, such as silicon carbide. The force of a single abrasive determines the cutting depth, and affects material removal mode and crack propagation length. Therefore, the sawing force is a key factor that affects the surface/subsurface quality of wafers. In this paper, a numerical sawing force predicting method considering wire saw parameters was proposed with the combination of both ductile removal and brittle fracture removal for each single abrasive. A new calculation method of single abrasive cutting force considering frictional force component and new material removal way considering the effect of lateral crack were adopted. Then the influences of process parameters and wire parameters on sawing force were analyzed. Finally, mathematical sawing force formulas described by both process parameters and wire saw parameters were obtained using the new sawing force prediction method. The validity of this prediction method and sawing force formulas was verified through experiments in the literature under the same process parameters and wire saw parameters.