Drilling 170 Micron Diameter Holes

"The goal of this Phase I program is to define the system concept (including hardware and software) needed to produce holes whose entrance, bore, and exit are contoured to user-defined parameters, reliably and repeatedly time-after-time, with a minimum ofintervention by the user, and in less than one minute per hole (hopefully substantially less.) We will demonstrate basic concepts by drilling 170 micron diameter holes in 1 mm thick metal plates using a commercial, ultrashort pulse micromachiningworkstation, and then compare the results to the requirements set forth in "Specifications for Rapid Hole Drilling" by William Latham. This Phase I program will lay the groundwork for construction and commissioning of a system whose performance providesthe best fit to these requirements. This work will find applications in the military in the ABL program, in the automotive industry in the manufacture of fuel injectors that result in better fuel atomization (and consequently more efficient and cleanerburn), in the heavy-duty truck industry by helping them meet the EPA's goal for reducing emissions by CY-2007 (see www.epa.gov/otag/diesel.htm), in micromachining inkjet printers by eliminating the need to use the hazardous and corrosive gases required torun excimer lasers, in biomedical applications in the design and fabrication of "lab-on-a-chip" devices, and in the fabrication of stents serving specialized medical needs."