The United States western Michigan University of manufacturing engineering professor JohnPatten Dr. developed a called "Mu -LAM" micro laser assisted machining technology, the method will be combined laser and diamond tool, on silicon semiconductor and ceramic materials made by heating, softening and cutting. JohnPatten said, "these materials are often very brittle, and they tend to break easily if they attempt to deform or process them.. By softening the material, we can increase its flexibility, making it easier to process.."
A kind of infrared fiber laser (wavelength range 1000-1500nm) is integrated with the -LAM processing device. The laser beam is irradiated with a single point diamond tool with high optical clarity, and the workpiece material is heated to 600 degrees above. The knifepoint radius for diamond tool of 5 mu m-5mm by epoxy bonding (applicable in milliwatt laser power processing) or welding / brazing (applicable to 1 watt or more laser power processing) way, connected to the laser in a tungsten or tungsten alloy shell.
Other engineering and technical personnel have tried to use a variety of methods to process brittle materials (such as ceramic). One way is to heat the workpiece in the furnace first, and then to process it; another method is laser heating and diamond cutting tools. And the method of Patten is integrated with the laser and diamond tools, so it has obvious advantages.. "Things are getting simpler, because the laser and the tool itself is aligned, and the laser is heated, the laser is just cutting the cutting edge of the cutting tool, so the best results can be obtained," he explained.. In addition, the workpiece material will not overheat."
Patten said that the -LAM processing technology can also cut the processing time and processing costs, and get a very smooth optical surface. "When using conventional processing methods, if want to make a optical elements, such as mirrors, usually need to starting from the casting blank piece, and a series of processing steps: rough grinding, fine grinding, grinding, in order to final shape. The machining method instead of the original series of processes, in the CNC CNC machine tool with a single point of cutting tools, and can also get excellent surface roughness (Ra1-10nm)."
Patten is working with a Japan Inc to achieve the commercialization of the -LAM system. He expected, the invention will be in a number of industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical equipment, semiconductor and optical industry find useless. He said, our initial goal is aimed at the optical and semiconductor industry, but now it seems that most of its applications will be high-energy, high temperature microelectronic devices. In the semiconductor industry, the chip is the carrier of the chip and integrated circuit, and people will use silicon carbide in the work condition of high temperature.. So now we have almost all of our energy focused on the processing of silicon carbide.."
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