TY - JOUR
T1 - High-speed fabrication of microchannels using line-based laser induced plasma micromachining
AU - Saxena, Ishan
AU - Malhotra, Rajiv
AU - Ehmann, Kornel
AU - Cao, Jian
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the National Science Foundation (Awards CMMI Nos. 1335014 and 0960776) for funding this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 by ASME.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Microtexturing of surfaces has various applications that often involve texturing over large (macroscale) areas with high precision and resolution. This demands scalability and speed of texturing while retaining feature sizes of the order of a few microns. Microchannels are a versatile microfeature, which are often used in microfluidic devices and can be arrayed or joined to form patterns and free-form geometries. We present a technique to fabricate microchannels on surfaces with high-speed and by using a multimaterial process, namely, laser induced plasma micromachining (LIPMM). The process has the potential to machine metals, ceramics, polymers, and other transparent, brittle, and hard-to-machine materials. The presented technique uses an optical system to modify the laser spot into the shape of a line, to fabricate microchannels directly without scanning as in the case of a regular circular spot. The process schematics are shown, and micromachining experiments on polished aluminum are discussed. Moreover, it is shown that the depth and width of the channels may be varied by changing process parameters like the pulse energy, pulse frequency, and number of exposures.
AB - Microtexturing of surfaces has various applications that often involve texturing over large (macroscale) areas with high precision and resolution. This demands scalability and speed of texturing while retaining feature sizes of the order of a few microns. Microchannels are a versatile microfeature, which are often used in microfluidic devices and can be arrayed or joined to form patterns and free-form geometries. We present a technique to fabricate microchannels on surfaces with high-speed and by using a multimaterial process, namely, laser induced plasma micromachining (LIPMM). The process has the potential to machine metals, ceramics, polymers, and other transparent, brittle, and hard-to-machine materials. The presented technique uses an optical system to modify the laser spot into the shape of a line, to fabricate microchannels directly without scanning as in the case of a regular circular spot. The process schematics are shown, and micromachining experiments on polished aluminum are discussed. Moreover, it is shown that the depth and width of the channels may be varied by changing process parameters like the pulse energy, pulse frequency, and number of exposures.
KW - Laser induced plasma micromachining
KW - Line plasma
KW - Microchannels
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U2 - 10.1115/1.4029935
DO - 10.1115/1.4029935
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84959312126
SN - 2166-0468
VL - 3
JO - Journal of Micro and Nano-Manufacturing
JF - Journal of Micro and Nano-Manufacturing
IS - 2
M1 - 021006
ER -