Micro hot embossing of micro-array channels in ultrafine-grained pure aluminum using a silicon die

Laser Beam Machining, Laser Beam Hybrid Machining, and Micro-channels Applications and Fabrication Techniques

“…Micro-hot embossing is another potential candidate among the available technique of micro-channel production. The process of micro-hot embossing was utilized by the researchers of [221] while manufacturing an array of micro-channels of size 5-100 µm in aluminum target material. Gau et al [222] proposed a flexible die forming process to form micro channels in aluminum foils (foil thickness 50 and 75 µm).…”

“…For example, copper micro-channels are used for heat sinks cooling [224] and silicon micro-channels for particle physics detectors [238,239]. Micro-channels in aluminum alloy can be found in [221,223,225]. Very less study is done on fabrication of micro-channels in hard-to-machine materials like titanium and nickel alloys.…”

Innovative Applications of Ultrafine-Grained Materials

“…Figure 9 shows the different filling behaviors during micro-coining with the as-drawn AZ31 magnesium alloy and UFG AZ31 alloy processed by HPT. For the as-drawn AZ31 magnesium alloy, the percentage of flowed area, Rf, increases slowly with increasing temperature from room temperature to 423 K and then increases abruptly up to 523 K. In contrast, the filling ratio, Rf, increases significantly when the embossing temperature in UFG AZ31 is elevated from 298 to 423 K and then continues to increase slowly with increasing of embossing temperature up to 523 [84]. Thus, UFG AZ31 alloy processed by HPT exhibits an excellent micro-formability by superplastic deformation, which is expected to become one of most useful materials to fabricate MEMS components with complicated structures.…”

“…Hopefully, there is a way to solve grain size effects in micro/mesoforming by applying UFG materials with submicrometer or even nanoscale grain sizes produced by SPD techniques [65][66][67][68] because ultrafine grains can improve the micro-formability, surface roughness, and good mechanical properties of the MEMS components [69][70][71].…”

Machining, Joining and Modifications of Advanced Materials

“…Typically, the diameter of each channel is 10 microns. The process of micro-hot embossing was utilized by the researchers of [221] while manufacturing an array of micro-channels of size 5-100 µm in aluminum target material. The MCPs are widely used to intensify low-light signal inside various image detectors.…”