Abstract: In grinding process, there will inevitably produce subsurface microcrack damages on the monocrystalline silicon wafer. The subsurface microcrack damages of monocrystalline silicon wafer are nondestructively detected by the polarized laser scattering method, and the corresponding signal strength is obtained. The volume density of subsurface microcrack damages is quantitatively determined by using the destructive detection method, and the relationship between the detection signal strength and the volume density is established and verified by experiments. The results show that the relative error of the volume density of the subsurface microcracks obtained by the polarized laser scattering method is within 10% compared with the volume density obtained by the damage detection method. The polarized laser scattering method can detect the subsurface microcracks of silicon wafer nondestructively, accurately and quickly without affecting the production efficiency.