An experimental study of edge radius effect on cutting single crystal silicon.

According to the hypothesis of ductile machining, brittle materials undergo a transition from brittle to ductile mode once a critical undeformed chip thickness is reached. Below this threshold, the energy required to propagate cracks is believed to be larger than the energy required for plastic deformation, so that plastic deformation is the predominant mechanism of material removal in machining these materials in this mode. An experimental study is conducted using diamond cutting for machining single crystal silicon. Analysis of the machined surfaces under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) identifies the brittle region and the ductile region. The study shows that the effect of the cutting edge radius possesses a critical importance in the cutting operation. Experimental results of taper cutting show a substantial difference in surface topography with diamond cutting tools of 0° rake angle and an extreme negative rake angle. Cutting with a diamond cutting tool of 0° rake angle could be in a ductile mode if the undeformed chip thickness is less than a critical value, while a ductile mode cutting using the latter tool could not be found in various undeformed chip thicknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]