Effect of speed on material removal behavior in scribing of monocrystalline silicon

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of scribing speed on the surface morphology and material removal behavior in diamond wire sawing of monocrystalline silicon through specially designed high-speed diamond scribing experiments. High-speed scribing tests are performed on a (100) monocrystalline silicon wafer over a wide range of speeds. The results show that a higher scribing speed is prone to inducing more surface defects such as burrs and tearing in the ductile scribing region, and more radial cracks in the brittle scribing region. The critical scribing depth of ductile-to-brittle transition is found to decrease with increasing scribing speed. A strain rate hardening effect is evident in the experimental data, which explains the underlying mechanism for promotion of brittle fracture at higher scribing speeds.