Fabrication of micromechanical and optical components by ultraprecision cutting

Micro mechanical parts and optical parts are fabricated through ultra precision cutting technique. The precision cutting technique has been considered to be inappropriate for micro parts fabrication of the micrometer order. Our ultra precision cutting technique with sub-micrometer cutting depth made it possible to fabricate 3D micro mechanical parts and micro optical parts. Following micro mechanical parts are fabricated: 10 micrometer shaft by lathe machining, 100 micrometer screw with 20 micrometer pitch thread, and 50 micrometer thickness lever made by stainless steel. Also it was able to fabricate micro optical parts such as holographic optical element with sawtooth cross section and pitch of 3 micrometer. The fabrication was carried out with newly developed ultra precision machine tool with X, Y, Z linear axis and one rotational axis using single crystalline diamond cutting tool. Those linear axis are controlled through hologram scale with 1 nm resolution. The fabrication process by precision cutting has proved to be faster and more precise compared to the lithography and etching method.