Investigation on micro-milling of micro-grooves with high aspect ratio and laser deburring

Abstract

High aspect ratio micro-grooves are critical structures in the micro-electromechanical system. However, problems like rapid tool wear, low processing efficiency, and inferior machined quality in micro-milling of high aspect ratio micro-grooves by length–diameter ratio tools are particularly significant. In this work, a combined micro-milling method based on water-free alcohol as the cutting fluid and laser deburring is proposed to investigate the high aspect ratio micro-groove generation of oxygen-free high-conductivity copper TU1. Parametric experiments and high aspect ratio micro-groove experiments were conducted to investigate the surface quality, cutting forces, and tool wear. The water-free alcohol was employed to improve the tool life and machined surface quality. In the case of the oxygen-free high-conductivity copper TU1 material, a satisfactory high aspect ratio micro-groove (groove-width = 0.2 μm and aspect ratio = 2.5) with a nanoscale surface roughness ( Ra = 68 nm) was obtained under the preferred machining conditions. Furthermore, the deburring process of the high aspect ratio micro-groove by the laser technology was conducted to achieve ideal machined quality of the top surfaces.

A review on micro-milling: recent advances and future trends

“…Furthermore, the value of the theoretical chip thickness is often similar to the size of the minimum chip thickness [20,45,46], which may prevent chip formation in each edge step-in [47,48]. (iii) The ratio of the burr size to the size of the machined features is higher than it is used to in the case of the conventional machining operations, the cost and time needs of the micro-deburring processes have therefore more effect on the final cost of the products [49,50]. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to remove burr in microsized features [32,51].…”

Rapid CO2 laser processing technique for fabrication of micro-optics and micro-structures on fused silica materials

“…However, the laser processing technique possesses great application potential in processing both metallic and non-metallic materials for its high processing efficiency and processing precision. 21–23 There are three main methods to manufacture micro-optics and micro-structure based on laser processing technique: (a) Combination of laser and hot embossing or etching. 5,14 This method effectively improved the efficiency of processing, but the combined process is complex and the equipment is expensive; (b) Combination of different lasers .…”