A High Speed, High Precision Micro and Nano-Scale Cutting Machine
- 詳細技術說明
- This technology performs mechanical scribing at the micro and nano-scale.
- *Abstract
-
Photolithography, a method for manufacturing grooves into surfaces of silicon primarily for the design and manufacture of electronics, has certain limitations when dealing with particular groove shapes and geometries as well as hard materials like metals. These limitations tend to hinder applications in other areas. Additionally, the complicated nature of using photolithography for prototypical product design is an issue that is of increasing importance as these designs become more complex. The industry is in need of a method to manufacture small mechanical parts, such as ball bearings, that have micro and/or nano-scale grooves on them for certain unique applications. The industry is also in need of a method of rapid prototyping to increase the efficiency of the design and manufacture of the next generation of photolithographic products.
This technology achieves the desired goals by performing mechanical scribing at the micro and nano-scale. This machine accomplishes this with decreased machine rigidity as compared to current mechanical cutting methods. The machine is able to do this by using cutting tools that have been designed specifically for the cutting of micro and nano-scale grooves of a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This allows the cutting of hard metals to take place efficiently and allows for more efficient lithographic mask design for the purposes of rapid prototyping.
DESCRIPTION/DETAILS
Mechanical scribing and cutting is a well discussed topic. However, there have been some issues that have arisen in the course of shrinking the mechanics used to cut and scribe at the macro level down to the micro and nano-level. The technology described here has been designed for this purpose specifically and therefore considers these issues in its design. As a result, several custom parts, it was found, are necessary to effectively cut materials, particularly metals, at this scale. These include a custom machine design and customized cutting tools.
This technology allows for precise control over depth of cut without the machine rigidity that was previously necessary. This allows the machine to be inexpensive, workable in many environments, and increases its portability. These factors yield an improvement over previous designs in machine design while simultaneously improving the quality, speed, and shape of the grooves being cut by the machine. Moreover, this machine brings this capability to areas that have not had this capability before by being able to cut curvilinear grooves onto curved surfaces of hard materials such as nickel. Finally these grooves, potentially, can be of arbitrary shape, an attribute that has been difficult to realize in previous machine designs.
APPLICATIONS
- MEMS: The most readily applicable area of use is in MEMS manufacturing. The instant technology allows for both rapid prototyping and manufacture of previously difficult to manufacture parts for use in MEMS devices.
- Mechanical Parts: This technology may also be used in the manufacturing of small mechanical parts to cut grooves and shapes into the parts that could not be previously have been manufactured in a cost-effective manner.
- Optics: One of the motivations leading to this invention was to assist in the manufacture of waveguides. The instant technology is capable of cutting micro and nano-scale grooves efficiently that could not previously be achieved at the tolerances that this machine can achieve.
BENEFITS
- Improves both rate of cut and quality of cut when compared to current mechanical cutting methods and laser cutting methods respectively.
- By decreasing the necessary machine rigidity and using customized cutting tools, this machine decreases the cost of mechanical cutting machines.
- Broadens the applicable industries by broadening the types of materials that can be cut to include metals such as aluminum and nickel as well as mechanical parts made from these materials which have curved surfaces.
For more information about this technology, please contact the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Office of Technology Management at otm@illinois.edu.
- *IP Issue Date
- None
- *IP Type
- Utility
- 國家
- United States
- 申請號碼
- 8806995
- 國家/地區
- 美國
