Thermo-mechanical and fracture properties in single-crystal silicon

Single-crystal silicon is extensively used in the semiconductor industry. Even though most of the steps during processing involve somehow thermo-mechanical treatment of silicon, we will focus on two main domains where these properties play a major role: cleaving techniques used to obtain a thin silicon layer for photovoltaic applications and MEMS. The evolution and validation of these new processes often rely on numerical simulations. The accuracy of these simulations, however, requires accurate input data for a wide temperature range. Numerous studies have been performed, and most of the needed parameters are generally available in the literature, but unfortunately, some discrepancies are observed in terms of measured data regarding fracture mechanics parameters. The aim of this article is to gather all these data and discuss the validity of these properties between room temperature and 1273 K. Particular attention is given to silicon fracture properties depending on crystallographic orientations, and to the brittle–ductile temperature transition which can strongly affect the quality of silicon layers.