5. Effect of Water and KOH Aqueous Solution on Micro-slot Grinding of Silicon

This study deals with the micro-slot fabrication of silicon wafer using mechanical micro-machining. Polycrystalline diamond micro-grinding tool is used to create three-dimensional micro-slots in silicon where the effectiveness of water and KOH is observed in terms of grinding force and surface roughness reduction. Grinding forces were lesser on using KOH as compared to pure water. It is attributed to increased lubricating property of KOH solution and its reaction with silicon surface creates a hydrated layer. Surface roughness was compared using water as well as KOH solution but surface generated with KOH solution shows some heat-affected marks. This is due to low heat-carrying capacity of KOH solution as compared to water. KOH aqueous solution shows better performance in terms of force reduction, whereas pure water shows better cooling property during silicon micro-grinding.