Annular Dicing Blade Selection

Annular Dicing Blade Selection: Choosing the right blade for your application is crucial to the success of your dicing process. The following information will help you understand the key parameters for selecting the correct dicing blade (IKB-036).

This document focuses on the “annular dicing blade” (also known as hubless) type; key parameters for selection are :

Blade Type: Annular Blades

Binder material: Nickel, Resin, Sintered Metal or Steel Cored

Blade Dimensions: Inner Diameter, Outer Diameter and Thickness

Edge Geometry: Standard, Serrated or Shaped

Abrasive Compound: Diamond, SiC, CBN, Grit size and Concentration

Matrix: Hard, Medium or Soft

Nickel Blades:
The nickel binder provides longer blade life and lower wear rate, and combined with the abrasive makes nickel-bond blades a perfect choice for soft material applications such as: PCB, PZT, Silicon and BGA (tape process).
Nickel blades consist of a uniform mixture of nickel and diamonds.
Blade thickness varies from 20 microns (0.8 mil) to 500 microns (20 mil), depending on diamond grit size and blade OD.
Diamond grit size ranges from 2-4 microns to 70 microns, depending on blade thickness.

Resin Blades:
Resin as binder allows for blade wear management rendering resin-bond blades an excellent choice for hard and brittle materials such as: QFN/MLF, Thick Ceramic Substrates, HTCC and Glass.
Blade thickness varies from 75 microns (3 mil) to 2,500 microns (100 mil), depending on diamond grit size and blade OD.
Diamond grit size ranges from 3 microns to 250 microns, depending on blade thickness.

Sintered Metal Blades
With slower wear rate than resin but faster than nickel, sintered blades are best suited for retaining package shape and size in applications such as: BGA, Soft Alumina, LTCC and HTCC.

Blade thickness varies from 100 microns (4 mil) to 1,500 microns (60 mil), depending on diamond grit size and blade OD.
Diamond grit size ranges from 2 microns to 70 microns, depending on blade thickness.