Fabrication of Microchannels

As part of (Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Microchannels)

Submitted By

Harshit Kumar Gupta

Supervisor Prof. Tanuja Sheorey

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DESCIPLINE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING JABALPUR (July 5- July 22 ,2013 )

1.

Introduction

The importance of study of flow through microchannels and various fabrication techniques involved in their manufacturing lies in its applications in MEMS devices, biochemistry, biomedical, lab-on-a chip devices, electrophoresis, etc. Conventionally, any channel or tube having hydraulic diameter less than 1 mm is called a microchannel. Thus, its fabrication is done using nonconventional micro manufacturing machines, which itself is animportant field for research. There are various fabrication techniques available for manufacturing micro devices, namely laser cutting, photolithiography, chemical vapour deposition, physical vapour deposition, electric discharge machining[1,2,3]. Flow and heat transfer characteristics of macroscopic devices are studied quite extensively and now known, but when it comes to microchannel flow, flow becomes significantly different. Hence there is a needto further investigate the flow physics in this domain via experiments and computational methods, making fabrication of microchannel very important work.

2. Present Investigation
In this phase, primary focus was on fabrication of microchannel with inhouse available facilities. At the same time, other known techniques were studied.In the presented work laser beam machining has been used to cut microchannels of designed dimensions.

2.1Laser Beam Machining (LBM)

Laser Beam machiningis an unconventional machining process in which a beam of highly coherent light calledLaser is directed towards the work piece for machining. Since the rays of a laser beam are monochromatic and parallel, it can be focused to a very small diameter(figure 1), known as laser spot, and can produce energy as high as 100 MWon a square millimeter of area[4]. It can be used to perform precision micro-machiningon all microelectronic substrates such as ceramic, silicon, diamond and graphite.

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2.2Epilog Legend 36 EXT Laser Machine (Figure 2)

2.2.1 Specifications: Maximum Engraving Area: 36 x 24 Maximum Material Thickness 12-14 Laser source: air-cooled CO2 laser tubes Material Engraving Techniques: Raster and vector Laser Source specifications: Spot Diameter : 25 -75 m

2.2.2 Operation of Laser Machine Epilog laser can mark(engrave) and cut a variety of non-metallic materials. The CO2 laser beam itself is invisible. The laser beam is having spot size range of 25 to 75 m[5]. At the spot,the energy density is concentratedand the beam traces the pattern to be cut.The pattern is provided in a simplified 2-D drawing. It allowsvery precise material removal that is characteristic of laser engraving. Procedure: a) Give input file in .cdr format(preferably made in coral draw) b) Input machine specifications for vector cutting: Velocity: 0-100% Power: 0-100% Frequency: 0-5000 Hz c) Apply these specifications and then start machining the job

Here frequency, power and traverse speed decide depth of cut, while other geometric specifications are provided in input drawing file. Depth increases with increase in power, while decreases with increase in traverse speed. First few experiments are conducted to understand cutting behavior of laser beam for a particular material under variable parameters. The same is given in detail with analysis in the following sections.
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2.2.3 Material and dimension of test piece Job was designed with2cm x 1.5 cm dimensions and Plexiglas (acrylic) material (figure 3), taking into consideration sample requirements of SEM so that it can be analysed in SEM without any additional processing requirements.

Fig 3: Uncut job peice

Fig 4: Fabricated microchannel

2.2.4 Cut material A CAD drawing was prepared with the requisite dimension of microchannel profile to be cut(figure 4).

2.3 Analysis of Channel geometry

The microchannel fabricated on Epilog Laser Cutting Machine was then analysed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at PDPM IIITDM Jabalpur having accelerating

voltage 200 V -30 KV, probe current upto 2 , image processing up to 4096 x 3536 pixels, vaccum pressure ranging from 6e-4 Pa to 2600 Pascal (figure 5).The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is a microscope that uses electrons instead of light to form an image. There are many advantages of using the SEM instead of a light microscope The SEM produces images of high resolution, which means that closely spaced features can be examined at a high magnification. Preparation of the samples is relatively easy since most SEMs only require the sample to be conductive (if not conductive, for few materials like Plexiglas it can be given conductive path by use of carbon tape (figure 4)).

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Fig 5 FEI Quanta 2000 Scanning Electron Microscope

2.3.1 Working of SEM The SEM uses electrons instead of light to form an image. A beam of electrons is produced at the top of the microscope by heating of a metallic filament. The electron beam follows a vertical path through the column of the microscope. It makes its way through electromagnetic lenses which focus and direct the beam down towards the sample. Once it hits the sample, other electrons (backscattered or secondary) are ejected from the sample. Detectors collect the secondary or backscattered electrons, and convert them to a signal that is sent to a viewing screen similar to the one in an ordinary television, producing an image. Here we magnify the image by providing more and more voltage.

3. Results and Discussion

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Fig 6 SEM image with 20% power/ 20% velocity / 2500Hz pulsating frequency / spot size 25m

Fig 7 SEM image with 20% power/ 20% velocity / 2500Hz pulsating frequency / spot size 50m

Fig 8 SEM image with 20% power/ 20% velocity / 2500Hz pulsating frequency / spot size 50m

SEM images ((figures6 and 7)) show that with the Laser spot sizes of 25 and 50 microns, the width of channels cut by Laser are 136 and 208 microns respectively. To obtain depth of cut of the channel, the cut is made upto the end of test piece. Figure 8 shows end section of the cut channel with depth of cut of 163 micron for Laser spot size of 50 micron. All the three cuts are done by a single traverse of Laser. It has been found that LBM is giving resonable surface fininsh. LBM strikes on material, heat it and material is removed due to melting. A pool of molten metal can be seen clearly at the centre of the channel after solidification, because material is removed from circular spot having power intensity concentrated at its center.

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4.

Conclusion

Based on SEM images and analysis of characteristics of cut channel, study can be concluded in the following points. a) Epilog laser can be used for cutting microchannels efficiently and with reasonable accuracy. b) Surface morphology of the obtained channel is also in accordance with design requirements. It is having reasonable surface finish within the channel. c) Material is being removed form of spherical cavity thats why channel formed is having spherical cross section, making it more useful. d) Effect of variation in traverse speed and power on depth of channel is not clear, so some more experiments need to be performed for which design of experiments has been made as explained in the next section.

4.1 Design of experiment (DOE) DOEis the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. It is done to find out effect of process parameters. In our case to find out effect of power and traverse velocity on depth following DOE has been made.

Material: Plexiglas Desired dimensions of cut: 2cm x 50 x75

S.No 1.

Profile Required

Parameters Power : 20% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

Aim To check working of laser on plexiglass and observing accuracy of operation

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2.

Power : 20% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

To check repeatability of operation

3.

Power : 20% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 25m

To

find

effect

of

focus

diameter(decrease in focus diameter) on roughness patterns

4.

Power : 20% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 75m

To find effect of focus diameter (increase in focus diameter) roughness patterns on

5.

Power : 20% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

To

calibrate process parameter

power for depth and observe change in roughness pattern

6.

Power : 40% Velocity: 20% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

To

calibrate

process

parameter

power(increase in power) for depth and observe change in roughness pattern To calibrate process parameter in

7.

Power : 20% Velocity: 15% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

traverse

velocity

(decrease

traverse velocity)

for depth and

observe change in roughness pattern To calibrate process parameter in

8.

Power : 20% Velocity: 25% Frequency: 2500Hz Focus diameter: 50m

traverse

velocity

(increase

traverse velocity) for depth and observe change in roughness pattern

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4.2 Futuristic Direction In the next phase the task is to perform experiments designed in section 4.1 to get proper understanding of Epilog Laser Cutting Machine and its process parameters. After that requisite size channel with two reservoirs at the end would be fabricated to capture characteristics. 4.3 References [1] M.K. Boyajian, Z. Zhang unpublished 2010 [2] Sean Ashman, Satish G. Kandlikar A review of manufacturing processes for microchannel heat exchanger fabrication4th internatioanal conference on nanochannels, microchannels, minichannels Ireland 2006 [3] N Prabhat, D Gupta, Fabrication and Analysis of microchannels Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. [4] Dr. VK Jain Laser Beam Machining ,Advanced Machining Processes, Allied Microchannel fabrication and bio related application

Publishers Mumbai, 2002

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