To provide a cutting method by a wire saw and equipment therefor which make it possible to cut out correctly and simply a wafer having a main surface in the direction of a specific crystal plane, from a single crystal ingot.
In the cutting method by the wire saw, a stage is regulated so that an expected cutting plane of the wire saw be parallel as far as possible to a first reference section of the specific crystal plane of a first ingot placed on the stage, and the first reference section is specified by applying a plane detecting sensor 22 capable of specifying a plane direction. First cutting is made for the first ingot and a cutting slippage angle between the section of the wafer obtained by the first cutting and the specific crystal plane is measured by X-ray diffraction. A second ingot is put on the stage in place of the first ingot and the stage is regulated by applying the plane detecting sensor so that a second reference section be parallel to the first reference section. Moreover, the stage is re-regulated by using the plane detecting sensor so that the second reference section 1BS be corrected by the cutting slippage angle, and the second ingot is cut thereafter by the wire saw.
NISHIKAWA MASAYUKI
Toshio Morita
Yoshihei Nakamura
Yutaka Horii
Hisato Noda
Masayuki Sakai