Program: Collaborative Research with Industry (CRI)
Field: Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Principal Investigator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. B.T. HANG TUAH BIN BAHARUDIN
Sending University: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
Japanese Co-Investigator: Prof. Dr. Hideki AOYAMA
Japanese University: Keio University
Year: 2016
Abstract:
Silicon is one of the popular substrates used for fabrication of microfluidic channels as it is very common material used in MEMS industry due to its compatibility with Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Recently, micro-milling as an emerging micro-manufacturing process has been applied in machining silicon with success. Micro-milling is therefore expected to have the potentials to cost effectively fabricate complex shaped silicon micro channels with feature size at the order of several tens to several hundreds of microns. Success of micro-milling of silicon will open new industrial avenues in fabrication of silicon-based microfluidic channels because of its capability of producing true 3D complex-shaped micro-products with high accuracy and good surface finish.
Silicon being a brittle material poses challenges on achieving a machined surface with minimum defects. Currently, insufficient experimental data available on characterisation of micro-machined silicon surface limits its industrial application. Hence, this research will perform micro-milling experiment using various micro-tools to investigate surface and subsurface generation mechanism for responding to the needs of industry. greater working network with international collaborators producing a phd student and enchancing working relationship with local industry the industry is looking forward for the final output for optimum process window / parameters to enable the company to produce different microfluidic prototypes for industries