Removal mechanisms of glass and sapphire materials by slurry free lapping

Slurry free lapping has been gaining more attention due to its higher performance, lower cost and simpler maintenance. It can be performed by preparing pad with slurry/abrasive particles fixing them into the pad itself. It was found that the pad prepared with agglomerated form of abrasive would show efficient performance compared to singular abrasive. And also the shape of agglomeration is more critical in influencing the lapping performance. In this work agglomerates were prepared by two different methods to obtain agglomerates in spherical and irregular shapes. Their effect on lapping performance of glass and sapphire substrates were analyzed. Irregular shaped agglomerates showed higher performance than spherical shape. It was found that lapping removal of glass was different from that of sapphire. The type of cutting mechanism would be the reason due the hardness difference.