In June 2003, the professor of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology developed a new technology for fine depth processing on brittle materials such as glass and silicon.
Brittle and hard materials are easily broken, but when the length is less than 1 micron, the surface of the material will be smooth and not easily broken. With this feature, it is possible to press in the depth direction to ensure that it does not break.
Scholars first made further processing of the longitudinally processed diamond tools. They produced 342 square protrusions with a side length of 1 micron in the region of the tool tip with a size of 60 microns and a 1.7 micron ion beam (FIB) device between the protrusions. During the experiment, they used this tool to apply a pressure of 1 to 5 newtons to the surface of glass and silicon within seconds. As a result, it was found that a small pit of 300 nm depth appeared on ordinary glass and the glass was not broken. In addition, small pits with a depth of 75 and 45 nanometers can also be formed on the heat-resistant glass and flat silicon by this method.
According to scholars, photolithography technology has only been used to make fine convex-concave materials on brittle and hard materials. The above-mentioned new technology is a mechanical technique and is completely different from its principle. The next step will be to develop more detailed vertical machining technologies.