Comparative Study of Cutting Methods for Silicon Carbide Wafers

Silicon-based electronic products are the main devices in the world's market.However, silicon has a relatively narrow bandgap and it is difficult for silicon-based electronic products to work in extreme environments.Therefore, silicon carbide emerged as the third-generation semiconductor.An important problem in the production of silicon carbide wafers is how to cut such material.This paper reviews three main methods: diamond wire saw cutting, electrical discharge machining (EDM), and laser cutting.As for the depth of the damaged layer, three methods are close to each other, but laser cutting can control the depth with controlled energy.Another factor is thickness.The thickness of the slice is limited when using diamond wire sawing since the width of the wire should be considered, but the other two methods do not restrict the thickness.Future direction for diamond wire sawing is to make the diameter of the wire smaller and the laser pulse width of laser cutting should be lower.EDM is mainly used in the cutting of metal material, whereas for semiconductors it needs more improvement.