Advanced thin dicing blade for sapphire substrate

Advanced thin dicing blades for cutting sapphire were fabricated and evaluated for cutting performance with respect to dicing blade wear and meandering of cutting lines. Three kinds of different commercial blades were used to compare the cutting performance. These blades had the same thickness and the same diamond grain size. The matrix material of one dicing blade was nickel–phosphorus alloy and two other were a vitric material. Newly developed dicing blades consisted of a vitric material with pore. A dicing machine was used for cutting sapphire. Turning velocity, cutting depth and feeding rate were 20,000 min⁻¹, 200 μm and 1 mm s⁻¹, respectivity. Cutting directions were ⟨110⟩ and ⟨010⟩. All blades could cut 1000 mm and more in the ⟨110⟩ direction. On the other hand, commercial dicing blades generated meandering lines and were broken only by 50 mm of cutting length in ⟨010⟩ direction. Fabricated blade can cut 1000 mm and more in ⟨010⟩ direction. The wear of fabricated dicing blade was the largest in the dicing blades. Although cutting performance of commercial dicing blades depended on the sapphire orientation, that of fabricated blade was independent of the sapphire orientation. It has been confirmed that the fabricated dicing blade was kept a cutting ability by flash diamonds on the dicing blade surface, which were created by wear of blade during cutting sapphire. Low cutting ability of commercial blades increased cutting force between with increase of cutting length. The increased cutting force produced to bend a blade and cutting lines, and finally a fracture of blade.