An Experimental Study on Wafer Demounting by Water Jet in a Waxless Silicon Wafer Mounting System

Abstract

In the silicon wafer polishing process, the mounting stage of silicon wafer on the ceramic carrier block has been using the polishing template which utilizes the porous surface instead of traditional wax mounting method. Here in this article, the experimental study is carried out in order to study the wafer demounting by water jet and the effects of operating conditions such as the water jet flowrate and the number of water jet nozzles on the wafer demounting time. It is found that the measured wafer demounting time is inversely proportional to the water flowrate per nozzle, regardless of number of nozzles used; implying that the stagnation pressure by the water jet impingement is the dominant key factor. Additionally, by using the transparent disk instead of wafer, the air bubble formation and growth is observed under the disk, making the passage of water flow, and subsequently demounting the wafer from the porous pad.