Investigation on EDM Slicing of SiC and improvement of process performance

Abstract

Silicon carbide was expected as a semiconductor substrate of next generation, since its material properties is superior to that of silicon under the high temperature condition. However, it is difficult to slice silicon carbide by using a conventional multi-wire saw method with slurry because of its hardness. On the other hand, a high performance slicing of silicon carbide would be expected by using EDM technique, since the material removal of EDM process could be performed regardless of material hardness. Therefore, in this study, EDM slicing characteristics of silicon carbide was experimentally investigated by using newly developed multi-wire EDM slicing equipment, and the improvement method of process performance was also discussed.