Abstract: To ensure the quality of silicon wafer during the lapping and polishing process, it is essential to develop a rapid, simple and cheap detection method on the sub-surface damage layer of silicon. Based on the selective etching behavior of damage silicon layer in HF solution, a rapid detection method is proposed to detect the thickness of sub-surface damage layer of silicon. TEM analysis indicate that the sub-surface amorphous layer can be selectively etched off in HF solution. Such results confirme the validity of the method. Based on the proposed method, effects of applied load and sliding speed on the sub-surface damage of silicon are investigated during scratching process. When the applied load is below 1.1 times the critical load for the initial yield of silicon, the sub-surface damage layer becomes thinner with the increase of the sliding speed. However, when the load is 12.5 times the critical load, the thickness of the sub-surface damage layer not change with the variation of scratching speed. Since this method can conveniently detect the thickness of sub-surface damage layer of silicon, it is expected to be applied for the detection and control of the sub-surface damage of silicon during wafer planarization process.

Key words: microwear, monocrystalline silicon, thickness of damage layer, tribology