The cutting method is a cutting method for cutting a workpiece using a wire tool, including: supplying a slurry containing abrasive grains having an electrical dielectric property to a region of the workpiece into which the wire tool cuts; generating an alternating electric field in a region between the wire tool and the workpiece; and running the wire tool along a direction in which the wire tool is drawn while the wire tool abuts on the workpiece.

A treatment method for purifying silicon microparticles contained in waste resulting from the cutting of ingots with a diamond wire comprises: a) providing a contaminated slurry, resulting from the waste, formed by an aqueous mixture comprising the silicon microparticles, organic species and metal contaminants; b) adding a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution to the contaminated slurry, in order to form a first mixture, and stirring the first mixture; c) solid/liquid separation of the first mixture in order to obtain, on the one hand, a first purified slurry and, on the other hand, a first liquid loaded with organic species and metal contaminants.

According to the present invention, there is provided an ingot clamp including: a clamp body configured to have a holder mounting groove and a cavity; a fixing part configured to support and fix one side of an ingot holder inserted in the holder mounting groove; a movable fixing part disposed in the cavity and the holder mounting groove and configured to press and fix the other side of the ingot holder; a cover assembly coupled with the clamp body and configured to cover the cavity; and an air supply part coupled with the cover assembly and configured to supply air into the cavity.

A saw wire includes a metal wire containing rhenium-tungsten alloy. A rhenium content of the metal wire is at least 0.1 wt % and at most 10 wt % with respect to a total weight of rhenium and tungsten, an elastic modulus of the metal wire is at least 350 GPa and at most 450 GPa, a tensile strength of the metal wire is at least 3500 MPa, and a diameter of the metal wire is at most 60 m.

A wire saw apparatus including: a wire row formed of a wire wound around a plurality of wire guides and reciprocatively travels in an axial direction; a nozzle from a coolant or slurry is supplied to the wire; and a workpiece feed mechanism presses a held workpiece against the wire row, the wire saw apparatus slice the workpiece into a wafer shape by pressing the workpiece held by the workpiece feed mechanism against the wire row and feeding it for slicing while supplying the coolant or the slurry from the nozzle to the wire, the wire saw apparatus nozzle is arranged above the wire row to be orthogonal to the wire row, and windbreak plates are arranged on both left and right sides of the arranged nozzle seen from an axial direction.

Provided are abrasive grains, an evaluation method and a wafer manufacturing method. A predetermined amount of abrasive grains is prepared as an abrasive grain sample group, the grain diameter of individual abrasive grains in the abrasive grain sample group is measured, the number of abrasive grains in the abrasive grain sample group as a whole is counted, abrasive grains having a grain diameter equal to or smaller than a predetermined reference grain e diameter criterion which is smaller than the average grain diameter of the abrasive grain sample are defined as small grains and the number of the small grains is counted, a small grain ratio is calculated as the number ratio of the small grains occupied in the abrasive grain sample group as a whole, and a determination is made as to whether or not the small grain ratio is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold value.

A method for slicing a workpiece with a wire saw which includes a wire row formed by winding a fixed abrasive grain wire having abrasive grains secured to a surface thereof around a plurality of grooved rollers, the wire being fed from one of a pair of wire reels and taken up by another, the method including feeding a workpiece to the row for slicing while allowing the wire to reciprocate and travel in an axial direction, thereby slicing the workpiece at a plurality of positions aligned in an axial direction of the workpiece simultaneously. Prior to slicing, an abrasive-grain abrading step wherein the wire is allowed to travel without slicing the workpiece, allowing the wire to rub against itself within the reels, and dressing its surface for 30 minutes or more. The method can dress a fixed abrasive grain wire at low cost and suppress thickness unevenness of wafers.

An evaluation method of abrasive grains used in an ingot-cutting slurry includes: an evaluation solution preparation step in which abrasive grains including polishing grains and impurities are dissolved in a solvent to prepare an evaluation solution; a sedimentation step in which a container containing the evaluation solution is left still to settle the polishing grains; a measurement step in which a turbidity of supernatant of the evaluation solution is measured using the measurement device; and an estimation step in which an amount of the impurities is estimated based on the measurement result of the turbidity of the supernatant.

The wire saw device includes at least one wire, which is provided tightly to be capable of travelling in a direction crossing a workpiece to be cut, a workpiece holder, which is configured to hold the workpiece and to move the workpiece relative to the wire, slurry suppliers, which are configured to supply slurry to cut the workpiece from an upstream side in a travelling direction of the wire, and slurry collectors, which are configured to collect the slurry scattered due to contact with the workpiece. The slurry collector is configured to be movable in conjunction with the workpiece in the state where the slurry collector is disposed adjacent to the workpiece and also configured to be retractable with respect to the workpiece to be prevented from contacting the wire.

A wire sawing apparatus of one embodiment comprises: a wire for cutting an ingot; an ingot conveyor unit for conveying the ingot to the wire; a nozzle for supplying slurry to the wire; and a dispersed slurry blocking unit disposed above the ingot sawed by the wire, so as to absorb at least a part of the slurry dispersed from the lateral sides of the ingot cut by the wire.