Solar wafer slicing with loose and fixed grains

In this Paper we investigate different process types for multi-wire sawing of so lar silicon wafers. These are the standard monodirectional wire movement as well as the reciprocating wire movement with SiC/PEG (polyethylene glycole) slurry. The third process is the diamond coated wire cutting with water-based slurry. We give a first answer to the question how to compare these very different sawing methods by combining financial and technical characterizations. Experimental res ults supply the data for these investigations and reveal the interesting alterna tives to the standard monodirectional cutting. In terms of cost, the reciprocati ng process is most promising, the diamond-wire cutting however can only be compe titive if the wire cost is reduced by a factor of 3-5.