Micro Milling of High Aspect Ratio Micro Structures in Ceramics

Th. Gietzelt(a), L. Eichhorn(a), J. Binder(b)
a: Institute of Micro Process Engineering, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
b: Institute of Material Research III, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract

Micromachining is a very flexible and universal technique, compared to EDM (electrical discharge machining) or ECM (electrochemical machining). There are nearly no limitations in design. Also 3D-structures can be easily machined. The material removal rate is high and surface roughness in the submicron range can be obtained.

With micromilling in contrast to EDM not only electrically conductive materials but a wide range of materials like polymers, metals and alloys as well as some sorts of ceramics can be microstructured. Manufacturing of microstructures made of several kinds of ceramics with different processing routes exhibiting specific advantages and disadvantages are discussed in this paper.