V. V. Popov - Ph.D. (Eng.), General Director, JSC «Svetlana», St.-Peterburg
V. N. Vyuginov - Ph.D. (Phys.-Math.), Director, CJSC «Svetlana-Semiconductors», St.-Peterburg. E-mail: mail@svetlana-ep.ru
N. K. Travin - Leading Engineer, CJSC «Svetlana-Semiconductors», St.-Peterburg. E-mail: travin@svetlana-ep.ru

Global practice shows that the best results in quality and productivity of silicon carbide (SiC) bulk crystal slicing are obtained making use of multi wire saw machines. In comparison with disk sawing, this equipment allows to slice one or several bulk crystals into wafers having approximately equal geometrical parameters in one complete production cycle. In this article, the comparison of multi wire sawing equipment with fixed abrasive and free abrasive was presented, and the choice was maid in favor of the latter. The following parameters were selected to optimize the process: cutting speed and type of diamond slurry. With these new process parameters wafer bow and warp reduced to 17 micron, TTV was found to be less than 20 micron. The developed technology of 3-inch semi-insulating SiC bulk crystal slicing satisfies all the up-to-date requirements to the process. At the present time it is used by JSC "Svetlana-Electronpribor - in the aggregate technology of high-quality wafer production for microwave devices of new generation.