100N High Thrust Short Stroke Voice Coil Actuator for Wafer Cutting Blade Feed

The VCAP0100-0020-00A provides controlled feed for wafer dicing processes: this includes blade feed on dicing saws, feed of splitting tools, and control of scoring depth on laser stations. At 25°C, this product can generate a peak thrust of 100 N and a continuous thrust of 47 N over a stroke of 4 mm, with a maximum voltage of 41.2 V, a back-EMF constant of 80.1 V/m/s, and dimensions of 110 × 105 × 51 mm. The short stroke of the flat voice-coil motor is well-suited to the process requirements, as the cutting blade only needs to penetrate a few hundred micrometres into the material; it is precisely this short stroke that enables direct-drive feeding.

The quality of semiconductor material cutting depends primarily on the feed force and its stability, rather than the nominal feed rate. When the blade load fluctuates, silicon, glass and ceramics exhibit different chipping behaviours; however, ball screw feed cannot distinguish between its own friction and the cutting force, meaning the process must operate based on assumed values. A voice coil acts as a force source: a command of 5 N results in a force of 5 N being applied to the blade, and the current curve directly reflects the cutting load. This enables constant-force feed, cut width control and early warning of blade dulling or chipping. This characteristic also enables depth control on thin wafers—where hard stops would cause the chip to crack: the spindle advances until the programmed force is reached and then maintains that force, so that tape expansion, wafer warping and blade wear are absorbed by the closed-loop system rather than borne by the material. As the coil has no mechanical play, the repeatability of the retraction and re-advance cycles is in the micrometre range, which is crucial for step cutting and multi-pass processing on compound semiconductor wafers.

Blade infeed on dicing saws, laser scribe and stealth dicing depth axes, cleaving tool advance for compound semiconductors, wafer edge trimming, glass and ceramic substrate cutting, and thin film trimming stations where a controlled contact force is critical.

Q: How is depth controlled when the wafer is bowed?
A: Depth is reached through force rather than a hard stop: the axis advances until the programmed cutting force is achieved and then holds it, so wafer bow and tape expansion are compensated by the loop instead of loading the die.

Q: Can cutting force be logged per cut?
A: Yes. Coil current is proportional to force, so the drive can stream a force trace for every street, which is useful for blade wear trending and for detecting chipping events.

Q: Is the actuator protected against dicing coolant?
A: The magnet track is sealed for wet environments. For aggressive spray, mount the actuator behind a splash guard with only the tool holder passing through the curtain.

Q: Why only 4 mm of stroke?
A: The stroke covers blade infeed plus retract clearance and a safety margin, and a short stroke keeps the magnetic circuit compact and the force density high. Longer travel is available in the 16 mm and 20 mm models.