Geometric Error Assessment of a Nanomechanical Drill

Manufacturability of micro and nano systems has gained importance with the advent of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Whereas the manufacturability of macro systems has been a widely researched subject, the behavior of MEMS devices in large scale manufacturing operations is virtually an unexplored field. Therefore, in order to predict resulting product characteristics, theories developed for macro-scale manufacturing are currently being extended to micro-systems. This research employs computer aided engineering (CAE) tools in the determination of the final dimensional quality of a drilled hole created by a nano-drill. In order to obtain a valid prediction of the drilled-hole dimensions, an adequate knowledge of the processes occurring during nano drilling and the factors affecting these processes are necessary. A complete analysis requires consideration of the kinematic, static and dynamic factors that contribute to the error in the drill tip. In this paper, only the kinematic errors that affect the hole geometric quality are considered. The causes of these kinematic errors and their effect on the variation of the drilled hole are also investigated. The resulting hole size will be considered to be the result of the “stack-up” of the errors in the tool.Copyright © 2003 by ASME