Does anybody have experience with Silcon Wafers?

[eBiz]

I was hoping to find somebody with any hands on experience with silicon wafers. So I was thinking that I could turn a silicon wafer into a clock. All that would be needed in addition to the wafer would be a small hole drilled in the center of the disc. I can get the wafer but my question is regarding how it would work drilling through the silicon. I'm not sure what method of drilling would work? Could I just drill with a normal electric screwdriver or would it just shatter? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

 

This is the wafer I plan on drilling...

 

[X1XNobleX1X]

I was hoping to find somebody with any hands on experience with silicon wafers. So I was thinking that I could turn a silicon wafer into a clock. All that would be needed in addition to the wafer would be a small hole drilled in the center of the disc. I can get the wafer but my question is regarding how it would work drilling through the silicon. I'm not sure what method of drilling would work? Could I just drill with a normal screwdriver or would it just shatter? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

That would be cool. 

[Manny Calavera]

buy fake silicon wafer and drill holes

[MatthewEnderle]

Put tape on it and put in tub an pour mineral oil on the spot. Drill with a metal bit

[Alexdaman]

Put tape on it and put in tub an pour mineral oil on the spot. Drill with a metal bit

 

why not a titanium bit?

[Vedge]

I work with semiconductors in a research institution, although my specialty is not silicon. For cutting up silicon we use diamond cutters (same as you would use for glass basically just much more fancy). I think you can just treat it as glass for all purposes when it comes to processing

[Vedge]

The problem you would have is that because its a single piece of a perfect crystal, it will easily shatter if you apply too much pressure and get even a tiniest crack. I'll ask our process engineer if he has any tips, coz now I'm also curious..

[eBiz]

The problem you would have is that because its a single piece of a perfect crystal, it will easily shatter if you apply too much pressure and get even a tiniest crack. I'll ask our process engineer if he has any tips, coz now I'm also curious..

That would be awesome if you could do that, I would greatly appeciate any help. I just ordered a 12" silicon wafer and would like to know if its possible. As of now my best  plan is getting a diamond tipped drill bit and drilling under mineral oil or water?. I could use painters tape to tape the entire disc to hopefully give it more "support".

 

I have found only one article on someone attempting to make a clock out of a wafer but the disc cracked when drilling. The page did not  give any information on how it was drilled. However he mentioned it was such a clean crack that it is not noticable unless up close.

 

Once this project is complete ( hopefully a couple weeks) I will post some pictures of the finished product.

[eBiz]

This is a picture of the photo I will be using

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/nG8AAOSwQItUDld5/$_57.JPG

[Charger]

maybe a diamond core drill(same thing you would use for drilling glass) with mineral oil as coolant

[Art Vandelay]

Silicone is going to act like glass, so you can't risk it heating up while drilling.

You might need to use a tungsten carbide bit, as well.

 

why not a titanium bit?

Is there a joke here I'm missing.

[Vedge]

I was told that a friction drill might work by melting the Si locally.. although that is probably very hard to do without specialised equipment. If you plan on using a diamond coated drill, you'll have to be very careful not to apply too much pressure I'd think..

 

Just for comparison, the way we cleave the wafer is by making a mini scratch on the edge and then apply a slight amount of pressure along the scratch. The whole wafer then cracks perfectly along the scratch to a precision of a few atomic layers along the crack. The scratch doesn't have to be very deep, intact it is often hard to see without a microscope...