Abstract: Having an excellent physical and mechanical property, silicon carbide (SiC) monocrystal is used extensively in the field of microelectronics and optoelectronics. However, the high hardness and brittleness make the SiC wafer processing difficult and inefficient. In order to improve the surface quality and processing efficiency of SiC wafer, cutting force of wire saw is developed during the wafer processing. From the view of chip deformation and friction, the models of normal force and tangential force are established for single abrasive, and a theoretical model from the cutting force and process parameters and physical attributes of wire saw is obtained. The cutting force experiments are set up, and then the coefficients of the model are determined under different process parameters. Compared with the experimental results, the average errors of normal and tangential forces prediction are less than 9.18% and the reasons for the modeling errors are also analyzed. The results show that the model can predict the cutting force for wire saw cutting process under the same conditions, which provides theoretical basis for the cutting force optimal controlling.

Key words: analysis and modeling, cutting force, SiC monocrystal wafer, wire saw machining