Development of a laser-focused ion beam combination machine

Machining of Lenticular Lens Silicon Molds with a Combination of Laser Ablation and Diamond Cutting

Lenticular lenses are widely used in the three-dimensional display industry. Conventional lenticular lens components are made of plastics that have low thermal stability. An alternative is to use glass to replace plastic as the lenticular lens component material. Single crystal silicon is often used as the mold material in the precision glass molding process. It is, however, difficult to fabricate a lenticular lens silicon mold that has a large feature size compared to the critical depth of cut of silicon. In order to solve the problems of machining lenticular lens silicon molds using the conventional diamond cutting method, such as low machining efficiency and severe tool wear, a hybrid machining method that combined laser ablation and diamond cutting was proposed. A feasibility study was performed to investigate the possibility of using this method to fabricate a lenticular lens silicon mold. The influence of the laser parameters and machining parameters on the machining performance was investigated systematically. The experimental results indicated that this hybrid machining method could be a possible method for manufacturing lenticular lens silicon molds or other similar microstructures.

Laser and focused ion beam combined machining for micro dies

We have developed a laser and focused ion beam (FIB) compound process for press mold dies of a micro lens array (MLA) and a micro needle array (MNA) in a glassy carbon (GC). The press mold die of the MLA was roughly fabricated by UV-YAG laser. After this process, we finished this surface by scanning FIB. As a result, higher accuracy and good roughness of surface profile can be realized. An optical glass is used to confirm the shape of lens. Moreover, we fabricated 6 × 6 through-holes in the GC by the spiral drilling in addition to the focus position movement of the UV laser for press mold die of the MNA. After the FIB process, we were able to make the needle die of surface and hole wall roughness less than 0.9 μm. A silicon rubber is used to confirm the shape of the holes.