Friday, September 26, 2008
2008 R&D 100 Winner
As we continue to design ever smaller mechanical systems (think chip-scale packaging and fuel injector systems), the need to accurately measure the tiny devices we’ve made becomes ever more acute. Vision-based metrology, such as with optical probes, is the industry standard for sub-micron repeatability, but until now no NIST-traceable calibration device has existed to eliminate errors. To achieve high accuracy at mesoscale, the Silicon Micromachined Dimensional Calibration Artifact for Mesoscale Measurement Machines produced by Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., features a nanometrically sharp yet microscopically long edge that can be located using a tactile probe on high-accuracy coordinate measuring machines. Chrome-on-glass grid artifacts can only be calibrated optically because they are essentially 2-D. The Sandia artifact gets its 3-D profile from the anisotropic etching of bulk silicon to create 54.74° sidewalls. When used to calibrate either vision-based or tactile dimensional equipment, accuracy improvements of a factor of 10 are possible.
Technology
Silicon micromachined dimensional calibration artifact
Developers
Sandia National Laboratories
ICX Photonics
