Investigating material removal rate and surface roughness using multi-objective optimization for focused ion beam (FIB) micro-milling of cemented carbide

Cemented carbide has been investigated as a useful material for the fabrication of micro devices. Focused ion beam (FIB) micro-milling has been found to be one of the most appropriate methods for the fabrication of micro devices. The experimental FIB micro-milling on cemented carbide have been conducted according to the L₁₆ orthogonal array of Taguchi technique. Beam current, extraction voltage, angle of beam incidence, dwell time and percentage overlap between beam diameters have been considered as process variables of FIB micro-milling in experimental design. Material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness have been determined experimentally for FIB micro-milling of cemented carbide and beam current has been identified as the most significant parameter. The minimum surface roughness of 5.6 nm has been reported on cemented carbide, which is not a usual practice to achieve on such polycrystalline material, and hence it may be considered as a significant research contribution. Maximum MRR of 0.4836 μm³/s has been reported. Moreover, genetic algorithm toolbox of MATLAB has been utilized for multi-objective optimization between MRR and surface roughness. The corresponding optimum values of MRR and surface roughness for multi-objective optimization have been represented by pareto optimum solution generated by genetic algorithm. The research work presented in this paper determines the setting of process parameters of FIB micro-milling for achieving a specific combination of MRR and surface roughness on cemented carbide.