Micromachinable Polymer-derived Ceramic Ultrahigh-temperature Sensors

The project that RISE lab will be funded by NSF is on developing high-temperature sensors based-on micromachinable Polymer-Derived Ceramics (PDCs). Our preliminary work suggests that micro- mechanical machining is best suitable for the proposed sensors since (1) it gives the best dimensional accuracy and geometrical controllability, (2) it does not have geometrical limitation on the structures such as the proposed sensors, and (3) it is the most simple and efficient way to fabricate the proposed sensors, and can be scaled up for mass production. In this project, a reconfigurable tetrahedral machine tool platform (Figure 1) will be designed for micro/meso- machining and automatic assembling applications. This integrated platform will offer a compact solution for vibration-free and accurate positioning for various micro- research applications. With this experimental setup, 3D complex devices can be manufactured in a more controllable and faster way with extremely smooth nanotexturing surfaces for diverse engineering materials, such as metal, ceramic, biological materials (e.g., cancellous bone), The future of this approach is unlimited as it can be widely applied in bulk machining of silicon, aluminum substrates for computer memory disks, sensors, fiber optics connectors and other areas such as biomedical, automotive, aerospace and telecommunication.

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Figure 1. Experimental setup of a tetrahedral framework for micro-machining processes.