Surface profile measurement and error compensation of triangular microstructures employing a stylus scanning system

Abstract

Microstructure-based function components are widely used in precision engineering. Surface profile measurement is an essential tool to verify the manufacturing quality of microstructures and to enhance the working performance of the device employing microstructures as function components. However, highly accurate surface profile measurements are difficult to perform for microstructures owing to their complex surface topographies. In this paper, a measurement system is proposed for the surface profile measurement of microstructures. The main components of the measurement system are a precision displacement stage to move the workpiece, a homemade probing system with a diamond microstylus to sense the surface profile variation of the microstructures on the workpiece, and a vibration isolation table to reduce the disturbance of the measurement environment. In addition, the stability of the measurement was experimentally investigated. Microstructures with shape of equilateral right triangle were employed as the measurement specimen, and the surface profile of triangular microstructures was measured by employing two methods to correct errors caused by the specimen inclination and the radius of the stylus tip. The shape, depth, and period of the measured microstructures were also detected based on the results of the surface profile measurement. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed surface profile measurement for microstructures with complex surface topographies.