Non-contact measurement methods for micro- and meso-scale tool positioning

Abstract

The demand for manufacturing microscale components for applications in electronic, biological, and microtool industries has resulted in a reduction in the overall size of machine tools. This trend has motivated the development of new measurement techniques to accurately determine the position of the tool. In this study, two noncontact methods to control the initial position of micro- and meso-scale tools and trace the tool position are described: a laser-based measurement system and a halogen lamp-based measurement system. To evaluate the feasibility of these measurement systems, the prototype per each measurement has been constructed. The laser-based measurement system had a positioning error of +/- 4.5 mu m and the halogen lamp-based measurement system had a positioning error of +/- 2 mu m. Several experiments and simulations were performed to identify the effects of a range of factors likely to be encountered in real-world situations.