Semiconductor ingot machining method

A semiconductor ingot machining method for grinding and cutting grown but unprocessed semiconductor ingots (10). said cutting being executed after said grinding, said grinding being executed with one grinding device for each one of said semiconductor ingots, said grinding comprising the following sequential steps of:

• selecting a semiconductor ingot;
• mounting said unprocessed semiconductor ingot in said grinding device and cylindrically grinding said semiconductor ingot (S) while rotating said semiconductor ingot around an axis (91) to form a cylindrical body portion having a circumferential surface;
• irradiating with x-rays said semiconductor ingot (30A, 30B) mounted in said grinding device while rotating said semiconductor ingot around the axis, detecting diffraction of said x-rays and determining an azimuth reference position based upon a peak detected value of said x-rays (93);
• and
• stopping rotation of said semiconductor ingot mounted in said grinding device and grinding said semiconductor ingot parallel to the axis at said azimuth reference position so as to form selectively an orientation flat (OF) and a notch;
• for each one of said ground semiconductor ingots (30D), said cutting being executed with one inner diameter saw slicing machine, said cutting comprising the following sequential steps of:
• cutting off a first of two cone-shaped ends (33b) of said semiconductor ingot by placing an inner diameter blade of said inner diameter saw slicing machine perpendicular to said circumference surface of said semiconductor ingot which has been cylindrically ground (101);
• cutting off a first wafer sample (34) from a first cut side of said cylindrical body portion (31B) of said semiconductor ingot (102);
• reversing an axis direction of said semiconductor ingot (103);
• cutting off a second of the two cone-shaped end (32) of said semiconductor ingot by placing said inner diameter blade perpendicular to the circumferential surface of said semiconductor ingot which has been cylindrically ground (104);
• cutting off a second wafer sample (41) from a second cut side of said cylindrical body portion (31B) of said semiconductor ingot (105);
• and
• cutting off a third wafer sample (43) from said cylindrical body portion of said semiconductor ingot to divide said cylindrical body portion (31D) into a plurality of blocks (42, 44) (105);
• and further comprising the steps of;
• grinding cylindrically a circumference of one of said two cone-shaped ends of said semiconductor ingot mounted in said grinding device over a length from one end of said cylindrical body portion (33a) of said semiconductor ingot while rotating said semiconductor ingot around the axis (92), said cylindrical grinding (92) said circumference of one of said cone-shaped ends being implemented between said cylindrical grinding (91) said circumference of said cylindrical body portion and said azimuth reference position determining (93);
• and
• cutting off a portion (33c) including both different diameters of said semiconductor ingot as a fourth sample for measuring a lifetime (101), said cutting off (101) said fourth sample being implemented between said cutting off (101) said one of said cone-shaped ends and said cutting off (102) said first wafer sample.