Improvement of EDM efficiency of silicon single crystal through ohmic contact

This paper describes the improvement of the machining rate of electrical discharge machining (EDM) for silicon single crystals by reducing the contact resistance between the silicon single crystal and metal electric feeder. To decrease the resistance of the rectifying contact between a p-type silicon wafer and the metal feeder, attempts to achieve ohmic contact were made by plating the contact surface of the silicon wafer with aluminum by vacuum evaporation, followed by the diffusion process. To accomplish an ohmic contact between n-type silicon and metal, gold–antimony alloy was used in place of aluminum. The influence of polarity on the machining rate is also discussed from the viewpoint of the rectifying nature of the interface between the arc plasma and silicon single crystal.