An ultrasonic vibration-assisted system development for inner-diameter sawing hard and brittle material

The inner-diameter (ID) sawing technology is dominant in small-lot and multi-specification sawing process of hard and brittle materials. However, the surface quality obtained in the conventional ID sawing cannot meet practical requirements. In this paper, a novel processing technology combining ultrasonic machining and ID sawing is proposed to improve the ID sawing process and surface quality. A one-dimensional ultrasonic vibration system is developed by combining Timoshenko beam theory and finite element optimisation technology. An experimental setup is established to implement the ultrasonic vibration-assisted ID sawing (UVAIDS). With single-crystal silicon as the sawn workpiece, a series of ID sawing experiments with and without ultrasonic vibration are carried out. The surface morphology and surface roughness of sawn wafers under different cutting parameters are analyzed and discussed. The experimental results show that the application of ultrasonic vibration assistance can improve the surface quality by nearly 30 % in ID sawing process, proving the ultrasonic vibration system is available and UVAIDS technology is feasible and effective. The developed UVAIDS technology can be widely applied to the slicing process of hard and brittle material.