High quality mechanical etching of brittle materials by powder blasting

A ball valve micropump in glass fabricated by powder blasting

“…When the glass wafer is covered by an erosion-resistant polymer mask, containing a circular aperture, the hole eroded in the glass has a rounded shape originating from the reduced normal impact of the particles near the mask edge [14,15]. The essential role of the secondary particle impact can be illustrated by positioning the mask aperture at the edge of the substrate, as shown in Fig.…”

Solid particle erosion mechanisms of protective coatings for aerospace applications

“…We present a full topographical map of one such scar in a single crystal silicon sample (Figure 3.9). In the past 15 years, much work on the influence of process parameters on the shape of erosion scars has been done in the context of abrasion jet micromachining of glass for flat panel displays [69,71,167,[170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181]. In particular, the work of Papini, Spelt and coworkers [167,170,[174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181] has led to many interesting findings on the importance of working parameters such as feed rate and WD on the erosion process.…”

Oblique powder blasting for three-dimensional micromachining of brittle materials

“…5. 3. We now need to reconstruct the right oblique profile from the resulting curve of step (2). This profile is the result of just primary particle impacts.…”

“…This etching process is based on the eroding properties of 30 mm size Al 2 O 3 sharp particles projected at high speed against a target substrate. The origin of this high speed etching (typical etching rates of 100±1000 mm/min) is the mechanical removal of matter by crack generation on the target surface [1,2]. Powder blasting using patterned protective masks has been developed for the patterning of microholes in large area glass substrates for¯at display applications [1].…”