Method of manufacturing thin quartz crystal wafer

• Main Authors: KUROSAWA TAMOTSU, ONO KOZO, CHIBA AKIO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 13.02.2007
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF SINGLE CRYSTALS OR A HOMOGENEOUSPOLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIAL WITH DEFINED STRUCTURE; APPARATUS THEREFOR; BASIC ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY; CHEMISTRY; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CRYSTAL GROWTH; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; DEAF-AID SETS; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKEACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; METALLURGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PRODUCTION OF A HOMOGENEOUS POLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIAL WITHDEFINED STRUCTURE; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS; REFINING BY ZONE-MELTING OF MATERIAL; RESONATORS; SINGLE CRYSTALS OR HOMOGENEOUS POLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIAL WITHDEFINED STRUCTURE; SINGLE-CRYSTAL-GROWTH; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; UNIDIRECTIONAL SOLIDIFICATION OF EUTECTIC MATERIAL ORUNIDIRECTIONAL DEMIXING OF EUTECTOID MATERIAL; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM; WORKING CEMENT, CLAY, OR STONE; WORKING STONE OR STONE-LIKE MATERIALS

A method of manufacturing a thin quartz crystal wafer from a quartz crystal block which is cut from a crystal body of synthetic quartz crystal and has a flat principal surface, comprises the steps of (a) converging a laser beam at a region in said quartz crystal block at a predetermined depth from the principal surface thereof to cause multiphoton phenomenon state, thereby breaking Si-O-Si bonds of quartz crystal in said region to form voids in said region, and (b) peeling said thin quartz crystal wafer from a body of said quartz crystal block along said voids. The above process is repeatedly performed on one quartz crystal block to peel off a plurality of thin quartz crystal wafers successively from the principal surface of the quartz crystal block. Each of the thin quartz crystal wafers is divided into individual quartz crystal blanks for making quartz crystal units.