Abstract
Metrology is crucial in monocrystalline silicon production as it ensures precise control over quality indexes of the product. Resistivity is a key parameter that is accurately measured to define the quality of an ingot. Manual resistivity measurement is currently undergoing an automation process, which arise the need of more flexible and compliant systems able to cope with the different sizes and shapes of the product. In this work, the functional mechanical design of a new end-effector for an automatic resistivity measurement machine is firstly addressed. After that, a mechanoelastic model is developed, its parameters retrieved and selected, and numerical tests performed. The preliminary results, obtained through numerical experiments, show that the newly designed end-effector is capable of adapting itself to highly irregular surfaces and, thus, to increase the feasible measurement points with respect to a rigid system. The proposed mechanism offers a promising solution to hit the high standards of monocrystalline silicon quality control, ultimately contributing to the advancement of semiconductor manufacturing processes.