Apparatus for cleaving crystals

摘要

Apparatus (10) for cleaving a crystalline segment (12), including a pair of aligning pins (24) facing a first cleave plane (16) formed on a first side of a crystalline segment (12), an impact pin (22) facing a second cleave plane (17) formed on a second side of the crystalline segment (12) opposite to the first side, the crystalline segment (12) having a cleave line (14) extending between and generally perpendicular to the opposing cleave planes (16, 17), and an actuator (26) connected to at least one of the aligning pins (24) and the impact pin (22), for causing relative movement of the aligning pins (24) and the impact pin (22) towards each other, such that the aligning pins (24) abut against the first cleave plane (16) and the impact pin (22) abuts against the second cleave plane (17).