| Abstract: | The need to establish ultraprecision mechanical fabrication processes to produce 'microfunctional structures' that have microstructures on their surfaces and/or inside and which are capable of performing various functions are inarguably growing increasingly stronger. In industries today, holographic optical elements (OHE), silicon-on-insulator (DOI) substrates and semiconductor devices wafers for ultralarge-scale integrated circuits(ULSI), microlens and microparts/components are good examples of microfunctional structures in the field of optoelectronics and mechatronics. For all these applications, the definition of precision engineering was changed by a few orders of magnitude. Some example of new precision engineering processes will be presented, which will include atomistic level polishing of AlTiC magnetic heads, microspherical lens fabrication and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the abrasive processes. Finally, some of the limitations of the precision engineering processes will be pointed out. |
