Multi-objective optimization of energy consumption, surface roughness, and material removal rate in diamond wire sawing for monocrystalline silicon wafer

Sustainable manufacturing is essential to minimize energy consumption and environmental footprints. In the diamond wire sawing (DWS) process, minimizing energy consumption without compensating for the surface roughness of as-sawn wafer is crucial for achieving a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process. However, the evaluation and assessment of energy consumption without compromising the surface roughness of the as-sawn wafer in the DWS process have not been thoroughly studied. This study aims to investigate the correlation between energy consumption (EC), surface roughness (Ra), and material removal rate (MRR) of DWS to effectively reduce environmental footprints and simultaneously improve the surface quality of the as-sawn wafer during a single-wire DWS process. Experiments have been conducted on monocrystalline silicon (Si), incorporating various process parameters, namely wire speed, feed rate, and wire tension, as controllable factors. A mathematical relationship between the parameters has been formulated using the response surface methodology and optimized using a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). Results show that the optimum parameter combination is obtained at a wire speed of 0.36 m/s, a feed rate of 0.029 mm/min, and wire tension of 7 N and has reduced energy consumption, surface roughness, and MRR of 8.53%, 2.85%, and 4.86%, respectively, when compared to the traditional sawing process based on per wafer. Results of this study can be applied on the multi-wire DWS of Si wafer processing for achieving sustainable manufacturing practices.