This work explores the performance of different silicon retainer ring designs when integrated into silicon micro-turbines (SMTs) incorporating thrust style bearings supported on 500 μm diameter steel balls. Experimental performance curves are presented for SMTs with rotor diameters of 5 mm and 10 mm, each with five different retainer designs varying in mechanical rigidity, ball pocket shape and ball complement. It was found that the different retainer designs yielded different performance curves, with the closed pocket designs consistently requiring lower input power for a given rotation speed, and the most rigid retainers giving the best performance overall. Both 5 mm and 10 mm diameter devices have shown repeatable performance at rotation speeds up to and exceeding 20 000 RPM with input power levels below 2 W, and devices were tested for over 2.5 million revolutions without failure. Retainer rings are commonly used in macro-scale bearings to ensure uniform spacing between the rolling elements. The integration of retainers into micro-bearings could lower costs by reducing the number of balls required for stable operation, and also open up the possibility of 'smart' bearings with integrated sensors to monitor the bearing status.
A new laser transfer process is reported which allows damage-free transfer of ferroelectric thin films from a growth substrate directly to a target substrate. The thin film ferroelectric material is deposited on a fused silica growth substrate with a sacrificial release layer of ITO (indium tin oxide). Regions of the film that are to be transferred are then selectively metallised, and bonded to the target substrate. Separation from the growth substrate is achieved by laser ablation of the ITO release layer by a single pulse from a KrF excimer laser, with the laser light being incident through the growth substrate. The residual ITO on the transferred ferroelectric layer is electrically conducting, and may be suitable for incorporation into the final device, depending on the application. The new process has been demonstrated for 500 nm-thick layers of sol-gel PZT which were thermosonically bonded to a silicon target substrate prior to laser release. The transferred films show ferroelectric behaviour and have a slightly reduced permittivity compared to the as-deposited material.
ISR develops, applies and teaches advanced methodologies of design and analysis to solve complex, hierarchical, heterogeneous and dynamic problems of engineering technology and systems for industry and government. ISR is a permanent institute of the University of Maryland ABSTRACTMicroball bearings can potentially provide robust and low friction support in micromachines such as micromotors and microgenerators. Their microtribological behavior needs to be investigated for design and control of such micromachines. In this paper a vision-based, non-intrusive measurement method is presented for characterization of friction in linear microball bearings. Infrared imaging is used to directly observe the dynamics of microballs and track the motion of bearing components. It is verified that microballs roll most of the time with occasional sliding or bumping resulting from fabrication nonuniformity. The friction-velocity curve demonstrates evident hysteresis. The dependence of frictional behavior on several factors is studied. INTRODUCTIONMicroball bearings have potential to offer robust and low friction support in micromachines, such as micromotors and microengines. A careful study on their microtribological behavior is necessary for proper design and effective control of micromachines based on such bearings. A linear microball bearing structure was proposed and its static coefficient of friction (COF) measured by Ghodssi et al [1]. A vision-based experimental setup was developed to study the dynamic friction of linear ball bearings by Lin et al [2], where the underlying friction model consisted of the Coulomb friction only.As a continuation of the work in [2], this paper contains indepth characterization and understanding of the microtribological behavior using infrared imaging, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, and analysis. The contributions of this paper include: a) verification of rolling motions of microballs by directly observing trajectories of all bearing elements (stator, slider, balls); b) observation of the hysteresis between the friction and the relative velocity; and c) investigation of the influences of the ball number and oxide formation on the frictional behavior.
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