Development of an ultra precision machine tool for micromachining on large surfaces

The goal of this research is to develop a multi-functional ultra precision machine to generate micro features on large surfaces. Design and characteristic analyses of our machine are presented. The analyses include its structural analysis and accuracy tests. Each axis of the developed machine was corrected and/or compensated from accuracy tests enough to generate grooves on workpieces with a less than 10 µm pitch size. After compensation, the 2-dimension position error between X-axis and Y-axis was reduced to 1.4 µm for a 400×400 mm2 surface. From a 24 hours relative thermal displacement test between Y-axis and Z-axis, the machine showed a stable thermal displacement which was measured to be less than 1 µm. From groove machining tests, our machine could successfully generate 5 µm and 10 µm pitch grooves and showed a stable micro machining characteristics. From this research, we can conclude that the developed machine has mechanical characteristics enough to generate less than 10 µm pitch grooves on a 400×400 mm2 surface.