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Major Breakthrough in Diamond Semiconductor Laser Cutting Technology

Time：

2023-08-07

Diamond is used in the semiconductor industry, and has a wide range of irreplaceable application advantages and prospects under high frequency and high voltage conditions. It is considered to be the most promising material for the preparation of the next generation of high power, high frequency, high temperature and low power loss electronic devices. Known as the "ultimate semiconductor". Based on the industry's long-term research and development activities, now diamond semiconductor has begun to gradually move towards practical. However, diamond is a typical representative of hard, brittle and difficult to process materials. At present, the main ways to cut diamond are water knife cutting, electric spark cutting and laser cutting.

Laser cutting as a precision processing method, can cut almost all materials, laser cutting is the use of focused high power density laser beam irradiation of the workpiece, so that the irradiated material quickly melting, vaporization, ablation or reach the ignition point, at the same time with the beam coaxial high-speed airflow blowing off the molten material, so as to achieve the workpiece cut.

Although diamond is attractive to the semiconductor industry, its application is limited due to the lack of technology to effectively cut it into thin slices. Therefore, diamond wafers must be synthesized one by one, which makes manufacturing costs too high for most industries.

On Tuesday, local time, the official website of Chiba University in Japan announced that a research team led by Professor Hidai, Hirofumi of the Graduate School of Engineering of the school, found a solution to this problem. They used a new laser dicing technique that uses laser pulses to cut diamond into thin slices, claiming to "pave the way for the next generation of semiconductor materials". It can be used to cleanly cut diamonds along optimal crystal planes to produce smooth wafers.

The properties of most crystals, including diamond, vary along different crystal planes, which are imaginary surfaces containing the atoms that make up the crystal. Although one can easily cut diamonds along the surface. However, a crack is generated along the cleavage plane at the time of cutting. For example, a diamond can be easily cut along the {111} surface. However, cutting {100} is challenging because it also creates cracks along the {111} cleavage plane, increasing kerf loss.

To prevent these cracks from propagating, the researchers developed a new diamond machining technique in which the laser does not cut the diamond into a wafer grid, but focuses short laser pulses onto narrow, tapered volumes within the material. Professor Hidai explained that concentrated laser irradiation converts diamond into amorphous carbon with a lower density than diamond. The less dense grid lines in the resulting diamond structure provide a predefined fracture surface for crack propagation.

The researchers said that once the diamond has undergone the above treatment, it is easy to separate the regular shape of the diamond wafer, ready for subsequent manufacturing work.

Overall, this technology is a key step in making diamond a next-generation semiconductor material. In this regard, Professor Hidai said that diamond cutting can produce high-quality wafers at low cost and is indispensable for the manufacture of diamond semiconductor devices. Therefore, this research brings us closer to realizing various applications of diamond semiconductors in society, such as improving the power conversion rate of electric vehicles and trains. At present, the results have been published in the "Diamond & Related Materials.

With the upgrading of the global semiconductor market, China's domestic equipment manufacturers also ushered in new development opportunities. As the core field of localization, semiconductor equipment is of great significance to the security of China's semiconductor industry chain. In recent years, under the influence of multiple factors, the speed of verification and import of local equipment manufacturers is also accelerating. Among them, the field of "cutting" has become one of the highlights. Especially wafer cutting, the development of laser will further help China's semiconductor localization process.

Article source IT home, global cutting-edge science and network information, China superhard materials network comprehensive finishing.

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Commercial Acceleration of Diamond Semiconductor

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