Laser microfabrication of alumina-silicon carbide nanocomposites

Abstract

Alumina-silicon carbide nanocomposites have many potential applications, because of their excellent mechanical properties. However, they are very difficult to fabricate for MEMS devices due to the difficulty in machining these nanocomposites. Alumina-silicon carbide nanocomposites sintered by a pressureless-sintering process have been fabricated using state-of-the-art laser microfabrication technology to find a way out of this difficulty. A femto-second laser with a specially equipped optical system,vas prepared and tested for nano and micro scale microfabrications of the material. The relationship between material ablation rate and energy fluence is theoretically investigated. In addition, the relationship is verified using cross-sectional SEM analysis of laser microfabricated alumina and alumina-silicon carbide samples. It is found that the nanocomposites are clearly fabricated using the femto-second laser and the surface roughness is acceptable for any MEMS parts.