Study on Nano-Grinding Characteristics and Formation Mechanism of Subsurface Damage in Monocrystalline Silicon

Monocrystalline silicon is an excellent semiconductor material for integrated circuits. Its surface quality has an enormous effect on its service life. The surfaces are formed by ultra-precision machining using nano-grinding, one of the technologies that can achieve surface roughness at the nano- or sub-nano-scale. Therefore, subsurface damage of monocrystalline silicon in nano-grinding was studied by establishing a molecular dynamics simulation model, and the impact of machining parameters on the force–thermal behavior was analyzed. The results reveal that the mechanism of subsurface damage is mainly structural phase transformation and amorphization. In nano-grinding of monocrystalline silicon, the tangential grinding force has a relatively major role in material removal. With increasing grinding depth and grinding speed, the grinding heat rises, and a certain degree of high temperature strengthens the toughness of the material, improving the subsurface quality of monocrystalline silicon. Therefore, subsurface damage in monocrystalline silicon can be controlled by reducing the grinding depth and increasing the grinding speed.