Study on micro-grinding quality in micro-grinding tool for single crystal silicon

Micro-grinding has a wide application for machining meso/micro parts using hard and brittle materials with high precision. In order to investigate the effect of grinding parameters and various micro-grinding tools on micro-grinding quality, experimental trials on side grinding of single crystal silicon (100 lattice orientation) were carried out using electroplated diamond micro-grinding tools. Based on experimental results, the effects of grinding parameters involving spindle speed, grinding depth and feed rate, together with various micro-grinding tools including different grain size and tip diameter on micro-grinding quality were discussed. The micro-grinding quality was mainly evaluated in terms of surface roughness and the average edge-chipping width. The wear condition of micro-grinding tools under different tip diameter and grain size was analyzed. In addition, the effect of tool wear on micro-grinding quality was also discussed. From the experimental results, feed rate showed significant effect on micro-grinding quality. The wear of micro-grinding tools could be divided into initially fast wear stage and steady wear stage, which was crucial to influence the grinding quality.