Investigation of the differences in nanometric grinding of SiC and Si by molecular dynamics

Silicon carbide (SiC) is gradually entering into commercialization as one of the next-gen semiconductor materials. In order to improve its yield and quality, it is important to understand its nanometric grinding mechanism. Silicon (Si) has been used in semiconductor industry for several decades, and its nanometric machining mechanism has been widely studied. However, the machining mechanism of Si can't be directly applied to SiC due to the differences in their physical properties. In this paper, nanometric grinding simulations of monocrystalline Si, 4H-SiC, and 6H-SiC have been performed by molecular dynamics. Rigid and dynamic cutting tool models have been applied and assessed. The results show that rigid cutting tool model can be applied to the simulations of Si for simplicity and dynamic cutting tool model is more appropriate for the simulations of SiC. Grinding force of SiC is much larger than that of Si, and the difference in grinding force between 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC is small.