Development of Silicon Micro Multi-edged Tool Using Anisotropic Etching (1st Report)

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This paper proposes a micro multi-edged tool made of silicon as a new tool in the micro/nano-cutting and the decision system of fabricating conditions to the tool. This new tool is expected to machine a softer material, like aluminum alloy, glass and so on, than iron because silicon is as hard as alloy tool steel and high speed tool steel. On this new tool, the pyramidal etch hillocks on Si(100) surfaces etched in aqueous KOH solution function as cutting edges because the shape and distribution of the hillocks are resemble to those of the cutting edges on grinding wheel surfaces. The multi-edged tool can be fabricated at the desire of user by only adjusting the etching conditions suitably because the topography of hillocks depends on them. Therefore, we have developed the decision system of the etching conditions corresponding to a specified tool. In this system, the genetic algorithms and the neural network model are applied and the suitable etching conditions; - temperature, concentration and time - are output corresponding to the inputs of average height and number of the hillocks. In this paper, the system is proved fit for practical use as the result of experiments.