News: Suppliers
4 October 2021
Meister Abrasives introduces Ultra-Fine 6 grinding wheel for silicon carbide
Meister Abrasives AG of Zürich, Switzerland – which designs and manufactures customized industrial superabrasive tools for high-precision grinding – has introduced the Ultra-Fine 6 grinding wheel, its latest technology for silicon carbide and other semiconductor processing solutions.
Having recognized the increasing need for grinding and polishing hard materials, Meister Abrasives developed the Ultra-Fine 6 (UF6) in the firm’s own laboratory and honed in its test center. The new vitrified-bond ultra-fine grinding technology combines what is claimed to be unparalleled quality and exceptional performance to achieve results unseen until now. SiC wafers ground with Ultra-Fine 6 wheels are said to exhibit reduced crystal damage, a mirror-like surface and improved wafer geometry even on hard-to-cut materials, such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), sapphire, LT (lithium tantalite)/LN (lithium niobate) and hard ceramics.
Meister Abrasives says that its Ultra-Fine 6 wheel achieves an atomic-level step-terrace finishing: the values obtained speak for a sub-nanometer average surface roughness and an incredibly low total thickness variation (Ra = 0.5nm and TTV <1µm). Surface qualities in the one-digit Angstrom range are achieved. The highly porous open structure of the wheel allows for an extremely low grinding force, causing the smallest sub-surface damage and thus achieving ultra-smooth SiC surfaces and improved wafer geometry. Not only do the Ultra-Fine 6 grinding wheels achieve atomic-level step-terrace finishing but, due to their excellent self-dressing behavior combined with optimized grinding processing parameters, they also increase wafer throughput on any tool platform.
At the heart of that novel grinding technology is Meister Abrasives’ proprietary bond-grit formulation, developed back in the 1980s, which allows for modifications not only of the grit but of the whole formula. Customizing the nanostructure allows Meister Abrasives to adapt to each surface condition, whether the start surface is saw, lasered, lapped or polished. The brand’s expertise in varying the properties of the abrasive, the type of the bond and the engineering of the wheels allows it to make grinding wheels that suit any individual use.
By employing Ultra-Fine 6 technology, manufacturers of prime wafers and devices can minimize wafer processing steps and save a significant amount of processing time, claims Meister Abrasives. The achieved surface is so perfect that there is no need for diamond polishing, which is a slow and very costly process, says the firm. The technical impact of those novel wheels is that, rather than having lengthy processing times (as with lapping and diamond polishing), SiC wafers can be ground in less than ten minutes with fewer fabrication steps, completing the process in a minimum amount of time. The ultra-smooth surface profile allows manufacturers to fully cut diamond slurry costs, slash the cost of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) and drastically increase throughput.
The long life and stable grinding current of Meister Abrasives’ grinding wheels, combined with the achievable ultra-fine surface roughness, is a powerful fusion that is unique to the market, claims the firm.
