A fracture criterion for gallium arsenide wafers

✍ Scribed by H.E. Belsinger Jr; B. Wilner; U. Tasch; L.D.T. Topoleski

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 528 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-7944
• DOI: 10.1016/0013-7944(94)90078-7

✦ Synopsis

The fracture of single crystal gallium arsenide (GaAs) semi-conducting wafers was studied. Prismatic beam specimens, cut at different crystallographic orientations from thin wafers, were loaded to failure in four-point bending. Fracture in these crystals occurred predominantly on the { 1 IO} family of crystallographic planes. The critical normal and shear stresses on the primary { 110) failure planes of the specimens at failure were calculated and a plane stress failure envelope was determined. A model to predict the likelihood of failure at any stress state was developed. Scanning electron microscopic analysis revealed that failure in bending was initiated from surface defects that approximate ~mi~llipti~l cracks on the tension side.