Micromachining of Parts for Microsystems.

This article describes microgrinding processes for the machining of materials used in microsystems. An example of such microsystems is an air guide, which is used as an example for the presented machining processes. High workpiece surface qualities and shape accuracies are the aims in micromachining. To accomplish this, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coated grinding wheels and pins, as well as multi-layered metal bonded grinding wheels, were developed and investigated, including novel dressing technology. In addition to conventional grinding processes, ultrasonic-assisted grinding is analyzed regarding the resulting surface quality. Microgrinding tools with CVD-coating were developed for structuring materials like glass, ceramics and cemented carbides. The influence of the process parameters and tool design on the workpiece quality is investigated. Finally, the micro-air guide was produced with different micromachining processes within the required tolerances. The investigated microgrinding processes with grinding pins enable the manufacturing of microholes with low chipping. Several microstructures can be machined in parallel when grinding with multiple microprofiled grinding wheels. Furthermore, dressed undercut geometries enable the grinding of perpendicular microstructure flanks.