Experiment and theoretical prediction for surface roughness of PV polycrystalline silicon wafer in electroplated diamond wire sawing

The electroplated diamond wire sawing technology is the mainstream processing method of cutting PV polycrystalline silicon ingots. Surface roughness is one of the most significant evaluation indexes for wafers surface quality, and has an important influence on subsequent processes such as surface texturization, screen printing, subsurface damage layer prediction and so on. In this paper, a mathematical model, considering the random distribution characteristic of abrasive parameters and its location on saw wire surface, was developed. The influence of brittle and ductile material removal modes on the wafers surface morphology was taken into account, the model can obtain the cutting depths of abrasives by discretizing the cutting groove and wire profile during the sawing process, and then the material removal modes of abrasives are judged by cutting depth. According to the calculation nodes closest to the sawn surface, the wafer surface profile and roughness along the feed speed direction were calculated. The correctness and reasonability of the model were verified by experiments. Then, the model was used to predict the variation trend of surface roughness under different process parameters. The results showed that the relationships between surface roughness and feed speed V-f , wire speed V-s and their ratio V-f /V-s satisfied power functions. Finally, the calculation result of surface roughness was used to generate a 3D surface morphology of wafer.