DIAMOND ABRASIVE GRAIN AND ELECTROPLATED TOOL HAVING THE SAME

Abstract

A coating method on diamond abrasive grains is used to form a conductive film on diamond abrasive grains. The conductive film has chemical composition gradient giving the diamond abrasive grain an outwardly increasing electrical conductibility as a function of film thickness. The subsequent electroplating layer can therefore more effectively embed the modified diamond abrasive grains, whilst the adhesion/bonding strength between substrate (work piece for electroplating) and the diamond abrasive grains is improved.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to diamond abrasive grains. In particular, the present invention relates to diamond abrasive grains having electrical conductivity and electroplated tool having the same.

2. Description of Related Art

Diamond tools (i.e., abrasive tools) are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing industries, machining industries, aerospace industries and the polishing industries. The applications including cutting, drilling, sawing, grinding, lapping and polishing. The diamond tools are usually manufactured by electroplating methods.

One specific process that uses the diamond tools is chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) and this process has become standard in the semiconductor and integrated circuit industries for polishing the wafers. As well known, a CMP pad is used in a planarization of wafers and a CMP pad conditioner is a type of grinding tools for improving performance and life of the CMP pad. The CMP pad conditioner can be produced by bonding the diamond abrasive particles, e.g., by brazing or electroplating, onto a metal substrate. For improving the bonding strength of the diamond abrasive particles and the substrate in the electroplating method, the surface of the diamond abrasive particles may be modified to be conductive. Thus, the electroplating layer may cover the diamond abrasive particles so as to avoid the diamond pop-out during application process.

Sapphire substrates are well-known materials in LED industry. One method of marking sapphire substrates is utilizing a metal wire with diamond slurry to cut the ingot. However, the diamond slurry has a high price and thus the manufacturing cost is high. On the other hand, the cutting rate is slow. Now, a precision diamond wire saw (PWS) has been developed for manufacturing the sapphire substrates. The PWS can be produced by bonding diamond abrasive particles, e.g., by electroplating, onto a metal wire. By using the PWS instead of traditional slurry cutting, the sapphire ingot cutting time can be reduced from days to hours.

In a traditional method of the electroplating, the un-modified diamond abrasive particles are mechanically bonded into the electroplating matrix. However, the diamond abrasive particles often cannot be firmly fixed in the electroplating layer due to insufficient metal matrix coverage and week mechanical supporting strength surrounding the diamond particles. During application process, the diamond abrasive particles may easily pop-out from the metal matrix (i.e., the metal substrate or the metal wire). The popped-out diamond abrasive particles may damage the processing materials, i.e., wafer or glass. For increasing the bonding strength, the thicker electroplating layer is required to firmly fix the diamond abrasive particles. However, when the diamond abrasive particles are covered by the thicker electroplating layer, it will result-in less free-cutting ability.

Although the commercial coating for diamond particle, such as Ti coating-or Cr coating layers are widely used in the market, the metal coating layer has high electrical conductivity so that the coated diamond abrasive particles are easily stacked one another to form diamond clusters or nodules when processed in electroplating bath.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the instant disclosure is providing diamond abrasive grains which have an electrical conductive layer with micro-conductivity on the respective surface. As the character of conductive layer, a full coverage and chemical boned metal layer can be plated on the surface of the diamond abrasive grains in electroplating process. Thus, the bonding strength between the diamond abrasive grains and the substrate will be improved.

Another object of the instant disclosure is providing diamond abrasive grains which have a conductive layer thereon. The conductive layer has an increasing electrical conductibility because the gradient of chemical composition.

The instant disclosure provides diamond abrasive grains which have a conductive layer thereon. The conductive layer has micro-conductivity and the electrical conductibility of the conductive layer increases outwardly from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain.

The instant disclosure provides an electroplated abrasive tool including a substrate (e.g., an abrasive surface of the abrasive tool) and a plurality of diamond abrasive grains. The diamond abrasive grains are firmly disposed on the abrasive surface of the substrate by an electroplated metal matrix. Each of the diamond abrasive grains includes a conductive layer on a surface of the diamond abrasive grain. The conductive layer has an increasing electrical conductibility as a function of the conductive layer thickness and the compositional gradient.

Accordingly, the instant disclosure provides diamond abrasive grains which have an increasing electrical conductibility. The electrical conductibility of the diamond abrasive grains is increasing from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain outwardly. Thus, the electroplated metal may cover the surface of each diamond abrasive grain entirely or partially by controlling the gradient of conductive layer composition and the bonding strength between the diamond abrasive grains and the substrate can be improved. Due to the increased bonding strength, the diamond abrasive grains may not pop-out easily from the-substrate of the electroplated tool in sawing or polishing processes. Therefore, the surface accuracy of the electroplated tool can be controlled in the sawing or grinding/polishing processes.

For further understanding of the present invention, drawing reference is made as the following detail description illustrating the embodiments and examples of the present invention. The description is for illustrative purpose only and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the diamond abrasive grains of the instant disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows the electroplated tool of the instant disclosure, wherein each diamond abrasive grain is partially covered by the electroplated metal matrix.

FIG. 3 shows the electroplated tool of the instant disclosure, wherein each diamond abrasive grain is entirely covered by the electroplated metal matrix.

FIG. 4 shows a relationship between the flow rate of C₂H₂ and the conductivity of the conductive layer of the instant disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a PECVD method to deposit the conductive layer on the diamond abrasive grain of the instant disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows an AIP method to deposit the conductive layer on the diamond abrasive grain of the instant disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The instant disclosure provides a diamond abrasive grain having modified surface. By modifying the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the diamond abrasive grain has micro-conductivity so that the diamond abrasive grain can be firmly fixed on a surface of a substrate and an electroplated layer can be controlled for diamond particle coverage percentage. Thus, the bonding strength of the diamond abrasive grain on the substrate can be improved and the electroplated tool can have longer tool life and better grinding surface accuracy.

The instant disclosure provides a modifying method of the surface of the diamond abrasive grains, and the method includes the following steps:

Please refer to FIG. 1; step 1 is providing the diamond abrasive grains 11. In the exemplary embodiment, the diamond abrasive grains 11 can be natural or synthetic (i.e., artificial) micro-sized/nano-sized diamond powders, but not restricted thereby. Preferably, the average size of the exemplary diamond abrasive grains 11 is ranged from 1 um to- 600 um.

Step 2 is providing a coating method to coat and form a conductive layer 12 on the surface of the diamond abrasive grains 11. The coated conductive layer 12 has a metal content, a metal-carbide content or a metal-nitride content therein and the metal content, the metal-carbide content or the metal-nitride content have a gradient of chemical composition so that the diamond abrasive grains 11 have a property of micro-conductivity. In detail, the electrical conductibility of the conductive layer 12 is configured as a function of the conductive layer thickness and the compositional gradient; preferably, the composition of the metal content, the metal-carbide content or the metal-nitride content is a gradient from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain 11 outwardly. In an exemplary embodiment, a PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) process is applied in step 2 and the exemplary PECVD process is set forth in FIG. 5. As can be seen in FIG. 5, the diamond abrasive grains 11 are placed in a rotatable vacuum deposition chamber 31. A pumping device 32 incorporating with a vacuum gauge 33 evacuates the vacuum deposition chamber 31 and maintains the gas flow and pressure of the supplied gases, such as acetylene (C₂H₂), inert gases. Furthermore, suitable saturated metal compounds are employed and introduced into the vacuum deposition chamber 31. By using a generator 34 for initializing plasma of the introduced gas mixture, the conductive layer 12 is coated on the surface of the diamond abrasive grains 11 and the conductive layer 12 has a metal content therein. Preferably, the metal content may include boron (B), tungsten (W) or transition metals, and the transition metals, for example, comprise titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), zirconium (Zr) and so on. Due to the energy gap profile across the thickness of conductive layer 12, the conductive layer 12 performs as a conductive shell on each diamond abrasive grain 11. On the other hand, by varying the content composition of the metal content, an increasing electrical conductibility as a function of the thickness of the conductive layer 12 is achieved. For one example, the saturated or unsaturated TiCl₄ is introduced into the PECVD process to form a titanium-containing conductive layer 12 and the Ti-carbide content or the Ti-nitride has an increasing compositional gradient from the surface of each diamond abrasive grain 11 outwardly. Thus, the electric resistance of the conductive layer 12 is gradientally decreased in the direction away from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain 11; in other words, the electrical conductibility is increased. According to the experimental results, the electric resistance of the conductive layer 12 is decreased and ranged from 80 mΩ-cm to 20 mΩ-cm. Therefore, the metal content of the present invention is not restricted thereby and it is required that the electric resistance of the conductive layer 12 is decreased and ranged from 80 mΩ-cm to 20 mΩ-cm so that the issue of the diamond cluster stacked by the diamond abrasive grain 11 may be avoided in the electroplating process.

In another exemplary embodiment, an AIP (Arc ion plating) process is applied in step 2 as illustrated in FIG. 6. A pumping device 43 evacuates the chamber and maintains the gas flow and pressure of the supplied gases, such as acetylene (C₂H₂), inert gases (such as Ar). A metal target 44, such as Cr target is provided to generated arc discharging plasma by applying current from power supply 41 and the metal target 44 is ionized and vaporized. On the other hand, a bias power supply 42 is able to apply a negative pulse bias voltage to the diamond abrasive grains 11. According to the negative voltage is applied, the bombardment treatment of the ionized metal can be performed and results in the deposition on the surface of the diamond abrasive grains 1. By executing the deposition reaction by changing the flow rate of the acetylene (C₂H₂) decreased from 200 sccm to 40 sccm, the electric resistance of the conductive layer 12 is decreased and ranged from 80 mΩ-cm to 20 mΩ-cm as shown in FIG. 4. Preferably, suitable gas flow rate may be applied in the deposition process so as to obtain a low conductivity area 12A (i.e., the inner portion proximate the surface of the diamond abrasive grain 11) of the conductive layer 12 having an electric resistance ranged from 70 mΩ-cm to 100 mΩ-cm and a high conductivity area 12B (i.e., the outer portion away from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain 11) of the conductive layer 12 having an electric resistance ranged from 5 mΩ-cm to 20 mΩ-cm.

While initializing the deposition process by introducing the higher acetylene (C₂H₂) flow rate, the metal content is a metal-carbide content, such as C—Cr compound having a chemical formula of Cr_xC_y, for example, Cr₂₃C₆, Cr₇C₃, Cr₃C₂ and so on. By decreasing the flow rate of the acetylene (C₂H₂), the composition of the metal content, such as Cr content in the conductive layer 12 may increase so that the electric resistance is decreased (i.e., the electric conductivity is increased). Similarly, the tungsten (W) content in the conductive layer 12 may be formed as W—C content in a suitable processing condition and the vanadium (V) content in the conductive layer 12 may be formed as V—C content in a suitable processing condition. In other words, the metal content in the conductive layer 12 may be formed as metal-carbide content, such as C—Cr compound, C—W compound, C—V compound, C—B compound and so on. The metal-carbide content of the conductive layer 12 has a gradient of chemical composition increased from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain 11 outwardly so that the conductive layer 12 has an increasing electric conductivity to improve the performance of the electroplating. In an alternative embodiment, the metal content of the conductive layer 12 may be formed as metal-nitride content in a suitable processing condition.

The present coated diamond abrasive grains 11 can be mounted on a surface of a substrate 21 by an electrodeposition/electroplating method, such as a nickel (Ni) electroplating method. The substrate 21 may be a wire, CMP pad conditioner or a grinding/polishing tool made of steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy or alloy steel. As shown in FIG. 2, the electroplated metal matrix (e.g., an electroplated layer) 22 extends from the surface of the substrate 21 onto the diamond abrasive grains 11 along the conductive layer 12 due to the micro-conductivity of the conductive layer 12 of the diamond abrasive grains 11. In the embodiment, the electroplated metal matrix 22 is partially plated on the diamond abrasive grains 11. Because that the diamond abrasive grains 11 are grabbed by the electroplated metal matrix 22 resulted from the electroplating process on the conductive layer 12, the diamond abrasive grains 11 are firmly and stably bonded on the surface of the substrate 21 so as to form an electroplated tool. In this embodiment, the partial surface of the diamond abrasive grains 11 is exposed from the electroplated metal matrix 22 so that the electroplated tool provides better sawing or polishing performance.

Alternatively, for further bonding the diamond abrasive grains 11 on the substrate 21, the diamond abrasive grains 11 are entirely covered by the electroplated metal matrix 22 by controlling the gradient of conductive layer composition, as shown in FIG. 3.

The advantages of the instant disclosure are following:

1. Comparing with the traditional and un-coated diamond abrasive grains, the present modified/coated diamond abrasive grains may be firmly mounted on the substrate by thinner electroplated metal matrix. The present modified diamond abrasive grains can be exposed from the full coverage and thinner electroplated metal matrix in large area so that the sawing rate/ability and polishing rate/free-cutting ability are improved.

2. The thinner electroplated metal matrix can be applied for bonding the diamond abrasive grains on the substrate; therefore, the electroplating process can benefit with less process time and cost. Moreover, the manufacturing efficiency of the electroplated tools, such as electroplated polishing tools, electroplated sawing tools may be improved.

3. Due to the micro-conductivity of the diamond abrasive grains, the diamond clusters/nodules may not happen on the substrate surface. In other words, the diamond abrasive grains are separately and individually distributed on the surface of the substrate so that the surface accuracy of the electroplated tools is maintained.

4. Due to the micro-conductivity of the diamond abrasive grains, the quality of the electroplating layer on the diamond abrasive grains may be improved.

The description above only illustrates specific embodiments and examples of the present invention. The present invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the present invention, provided they fall within the scope of the present invention as defined in the following appended claims.

Claims

1. A diamond abrasive grain, comprising: an electrical conductive layer on the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the conductive layer having an outwardly increasing electrical conductibility along the thickness of the conductive layer, thereby providing micro-conductivity of the diamond abrasive grain.

2. The diamond abrasive grain as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive layer includes a metal content, and the metal content has a chemical composition gradient along the direction of the thickness of the conductive layer.

3. The diamond abrasive grain as claimed in claim 2, said metal content being at least one selected from the group consisting of boron, tungsten and transition metals, wherein the transition metals is selected from the group consisting of titanium, chromium, vanadium and zirconium, and the combination thereof.

4. The diamond abrasive grain as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive layer includes a metal-carbide content or a metal-nitride content, and the metal-carbide content or the metal-nitride content has an outwardly increasing chemical composition gradient along the thickness of the conductive layer from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain.

5. The diamond abrasive grain as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive layer has an inner portion proximate the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the inner portion has an electric resistance ranged from 70 to 100 mΩ-cm, the conductive layer has an outer portion away from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the outer portion has an electric resistance ranged from 5 to 20 mΩ-cm.

6. The diamond abrasive grain as claimed in claim 1, wherein the diamond particle sized from 1 um to 600 um.

7. An electroplated abrasive tool, comprising:

an abrasive surface; and

a plurality of diamond abrasive grains firmly retained on the abrasive surface of the abrasive tool by an electroplated metal matrix, wherein each of the diamond abrasive grains includes a conductive layer with electrical micro-conductibility on the surface of abrasive grains.

8. The electroplated tool as claimed in claim 6, wherein the conductive layer has a metal content therein and the metal content is a gradient of chemical composition, said metal content comprises boron, tungsten or transition metals, the transition metals comprises titanium, chromium, vanadium and zirconium.

9. The electroplated tool as claimed in claim 6, wherein the conductive layer includes a metal-carbide content or a metal-nitride content therein, and the metal-carbide content or the metal-nitride content has an outwardly increasing chemical composition gradient along the thickness of the conductive layer from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain.

10. The electroplated tool as claimed in claim 6, wherein the conductive layer has an inner portion proximate the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the inner portion has an electric resistance ranged from 70 to 100 mΩ-cm, the conductive layer has an outer portion away from the surface of the diamond abrasive grain, the outer portion has an electric resistance ranged from 5 to 20 mΩ-cm.

11. The electroplated tool as claimed in claim 6, wherein the electroplated metal matrix is partially or entirely plated on each of the diamond abrasive grains with particle size from 1 um to 600 um.