STUDY ON MACHINING HIGH ASPECT RATIO MICRO-CHANNEL STRUCTURES VIA A SHAPING METHOD USING A DIAMOND TOOL

摘要

Recently, microstructures have been widely used in high-tech industries and applications including in the display, bio, and energy fields. Within the various microstructures, micro channel have been applied in security films, optical wave guides, micro heat sinks and bipolar plates of fuel cells. In order to increase the efficiency and performance of these products, high aspect ratio micro-channel structures are required [1][2][3][4]. The chemical and optical processing methods that have been used to machine micro-channel structures have primarily been machining methods; however, mechanical methods are preferable in the fabrication of micro-channel structures because they enable higher quality micro-channel structures to be fabricated. Micro-channel structures with increased aspect ratios (ARs) are easily deformed and destroyed via mechanical machining due to the required cutting force, as shown in Figure 1. Thus, methods of machining high aspect ratio channel structures without deformation and breakage need to be studied. The deformation and breakage of the micro-channel structures were analyzed according to machining processes, overlapped cutting depths and feed rates by machining micro-channel structures using shaper and then high aspect ratio micro channel structures with AR30 were machined based on earlier experiments in this study.