[labnetwork] Sapphire dicing

[Ahdam Ali]

Gloria and Natalia,

I’ll write up a procedure and include consumables/parts. Discussions with a professional dicing service has taught me that it’s possible to dice sapphire with a single pass up to 1mm, but they dress very heavily for each sample (removing 20% of the samples thickness from the blade) and even they blow up blades. It’s quite a difficult material to dice. Depth steps seem to the most viable route.

Best,

Ahdam Ali
R&D Engineer II
UCSD Calit2 Nano3 Facility
Atkinson Hall M/C0436
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093-0436

Email: aali at eng.ucsd.edu
Phone: (858)-534-4768

> On May 17, 2021, at 4:54 PM, Gloria Qiu <gloria.qiu at sydney.edu.au> wrote:
> 
> Hi Natalia,
>  
> I’ve tried dicing 600um sapphire with resin hubless blade at 3mm/sec, 15krmp, and the blades always chip. The manufacturer also recommended depth-step as Ahdam suggested but I haven’t got time to try it. (It would be quite slow though).
> My colleague at UNSW uses a standard procedure (one-step) with VT07/12 blades that I am keen to try. I found the blade and dicing information here and the result looks pretty decent.
> https://www.aurotech.com/index.php/en/products/dicing-blade/vt07-12-series-detail
>  
> Hope this helps.
>  
>  
> Best,
>  
> Gloria
>  
> Wenlan (Gloria) Qiu
> Senior Process Engineer | Research & Prototype Foundry
> Core Research Facilities | Research Portfolio
>  
> THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
> Level 4, Sydney Nanoscience Hub A31 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
> T +61 02 8627 9756
> E gloria.qiu at sydney.edu.au  | W Research and Prototype Foundry
>  
>  
> CRICOS 00026A
> This email plus any attachments to it are confidential.  Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited.  If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments.
>  
> Please think of our environment and only print this e-mail if necessary.
>  
>  
>  
> From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Ahdam Ali
> Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2021 1:12 AM
> To: Natalia Pankratova <natalia.a.pankratova at gmail.com>
> Cc: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: [labnetwork] Sapphire dicing
>  
> Natalia,
>  
> At Nano3, we utilize a Disco DAD3220 Dicing Saw with Hubless blades in order to dice sapphire substrates. The process is relatively fool-proof, but one must be careful with dicing parameters. Cutting glass or sapphire typically require depth steps (multiple passes along a single cut) as well as very low feed speeds in order to ensure the integrity of the sample. This results in a considerably lower throughput when compared to dicing of a material such as Si.
>  
> Best,
>  
> On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 4:57 AM Natalia Pankratova <natalia.a.pankratova at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>  
> Can you please share your experience on dicing sapphire wafers? Blade dicing or laser? Do you have a favorite dicing brand/model?
>  
> Thank you in advance!
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> Natalia Pankratova.
> Alice&Bob
> Nanofabrication engineer
> _______________________________________________
> labnetwork mailing list
> labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> https://mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork
> 
>  
> --
> Ahdam Ali
> R&D Engineer II
> UCSD Calit2 Nano3 Facility
> Atkinson Hall M/C0436
> 9500 Gilman Drive
> La Jolla, CA  92093-0436
>  
> Email: aali at eng.ucsd.edu
> Phone: (858)-534-4768
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mtl.mit.edu/pipermail/labnetwork/attachments/20210517/b4b31900/attachment.html>