Experimental Research on Discharge Forming Cutting-Electrochemical Machining of Single-Crystal Silicon

During the wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) process, a large number of discharge pits and a recast layer are easily generated on the workpiece surface, resulting in high surface roughness. A discharge forming cutting-electrochemical machining method for fabricating single-crystal silicon is proposed in this study to solve this problem. On the same processing equipment, single-crystal silicon is first cut using the discharge forming cutting method. Second, electrochemical anodic reaction technology is used to dissolve the discharge pits and recast layer on the single-crystal silicon surface. The machining mechanism of this process, the surface elements of the processed single-crystal silicon and a comparison of the kerf width are analyzed through experiments. On this basis, the influence of the movement speed of the copper foil electrode during electrochemical anodic dissolution on the final surface roughness is qualitatively analyzed. The experimental results show that discharge forming cutting-electrochemical machining can effectively eliminate the electrical discharge pits and recast layer, which are caused by electric discharge cutting, on the surface of single-crystal silicon, thereby reducing the surface roughness of the workpiece.