Abrasive jet micromachining : the effect of particle size and shape, and the machining of three dimensional suspended components

多年来，由压缩气体推动的细小磨粒射流已被用于工程表面的改性。磨料喷射技术最有趣和最重要的应用之一是作为一种低成本和快速的微加工技术，用于制造用于微流体、微机电系统(MEMS)和光电子应用的部件。除了低成本，这项技术还很有吸引力，因为它不涉及使用有害化学物质，而且它允许在不同深度一次加工微特征，这是传统湿法蚀刻技术难以做到的。拟议的研究集中在磨料射流微加工(AJM)的两个鲜为人知的方面：(I)颗粒材料、尺寸和形状以及目标曲率对加工精度的作用；(Ii)利用磨料射流加工三维特征的模型和技术的发展。

Jets of small abrasive particles propelled by compressed gases have been used for many years to modify engineering surfaces. One of the most interesting and important applications of abrasive jet technology is as a low cost and rapid micromachining technology for the fabrication of components used in microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and opto electronics applications. Besides its low cost, the technology is attractive because it does not involve the use of harmful chemicals, and it allows for one pass fabrication of micro-features at different depths, something that is difficult with traditional wet etching techniques. The proposed research focuses on the investigation of two poorly understood aspects of abrasive jet micromachining (AJM): (i) The role that particle material, size and shape and target curvature have on machining precision and (ii) the development of models and techniques to use abrasive jets to machine three dimensional (3D) features.