Micro-grooving on quartz crystals by an abrasive air jet

Abstract

An investigation of the micro-grooving performance of abrasive air jet (AAJ) on quartz crystals is presented and discussed. An experimental study was carried out first to understand the effect of process parameters on the major grooving performance measures such as groove depth, groove width, kerf taper, and surface roughness. Plausible trends for these grooving performance measures with respect to the various process variables, such as air pressure, nozzle traverse speed, jet impact angle, and abrasive mass flowrate, are discussed. It is found that AAJ is an effective technology for micromachining of quartz crystals and the grooving performance can be improved or optimized by selecting the process parameters properly. Predictive models are then developed for quantitatively estimating the micro-grooving performance. The models are finally verified by an experiment. It shows that the model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results under the corresponding conditions.