Abstract

The recently established ion cut technology enables accurate fabrication of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and has found some other significant applications. We study fracture mechanics of the technology when directly cutting a wafer into a desired surface morphology. First, we describe integral transform-based methods for calculating the stress intensity factors of subsurface cracks embedded in a semiinfinite solid. Because the crack and the free surface interact, the crack tip fields are generally of I-II mixed mode. We derive solutions for plane-strain or axisymmetrical configurations. We then analyze the suggested three-dimensional ion cut method using the fracture criterion for kinking propagation of a mixed-mode crack. To illustrate the approach, we consider circular hole and straight groove surface patterns.

Keywords

crack, fracture, stress intensity factor, integral transform method, ion cut technology

Authors