Investigation of mechanical force acting on the surface modified-substrate layer area during the chemical-mechanical micro-grinding of monocrystalline silicon

The application and demand of monocrystalline silicon components are becoming more and more urgent for many advanced applications like solar cells. Chemical-mechanical micro-grinding is one of the effective methods for processing such components. However, the theory of chemical-mechanical micro-grinding of monocrystalline silicon has not been fully established, and the mechanism of material removal is still unclear. In this paper, the monocrystalline surface is modified by catalytic modification, resulting in a modified-substrate layer region. A model is proposed to study and analyze force conditions based on Green's function for modified-substrate layer region under the action of normal force and tangential force. The nanoindentation, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy have been done to verify the theoretical model and explore the phase change process of monocrystalline silicon. The results showed that the established mechanical model can predict the stress distribution at the interface between the surface modification layer of the monocrystalline silicon material and the substrate layer. Furthermore, the internal stress distribution of the surface of the monocrystalline silicon material that has undergone surface chemical modification under load can be obtained. Therefore, the recent paper provides a theoretical basis for the optimization of the process of chemical-mechanical micro-grinding of monocrystalline silicon.