Swiss researchers carve 3mm-wide watch parts in diamond
With support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, researchers have invented a new technique for sculpting materials to build micromechanical systems. The most special part of it is that they used artificial single crystal diamond to produce an extremely tiny watch part.
Diamond is hard, tough, has good thermal conductivity, and is highly transparent, so it is an ideal material for many mechanical equipment and optical devices. But at the same time, it is very challenging to precisely cut diamond on the micron scale (one thousandth of a millimeter). With funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Professor Neils Quack and his team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have invented a new method to carve a micromechanical watch system, a Escape wheel and pallet fork with a diameter of 3 mm.
Reactive ion etching, a technique widely used in computer chips, has been improved upon by the team, which successfully etched synthetic diamond into three-dimensional shapes 0.15mm thick, three times thicker than the thickest existing structures. “We are getting closer to the standard thickness of the watch industry, which is 0.2 mm,” Quack said. “This technology has attracted attention in the industry, and we are currently in talks with a Swiss watch company. We think diamond can reduce friction and increase power reserve. , i.e. prolonging the time until the watch needs to be rewound. But this is only a hypothesis to be proven.” In watchmaking, diamond has other advantages: it is transparent, it can be colored, and in addition, diamond is non-magnetic It is also a highly sought after attribute in the current market.
Industrial patent
Previously, "reactive ion etching" technology could only produce structures with a thickness of 0.05 mm, as ions (charged atoms) were accelerated by an electric field, not only moving the diamond weld layer at selected locations, but also eroding the film layer defining the target shape . Therefore, the thickness of the resulting structure is limited by the film layer resistance and thickness. In less than half a year, a research assistant named Adrien Toros at the Institute of Microelectronics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne has invented a double-layer membrane, which consists of a layer of aluminum and a layer of silicon dioxide. The layer adsorbs diamond well, and the silicon dioxide layer outside is thicker, which is more resistant to the effects of ionic reactions. This technology can speed up the etching process and achieve near-vertical deep cuts.
Backed by Innosuisse (previously CTI), the team plans to collaborate with Lake Diamond, a Swiss-based manufacturer of synthetic diamonds, after they have jointly applied for a patent. Pascal Gallo, the company's CEO, revealed: "In the medium term we will use this technology for the precise production and commercialization of micron-scale components, thereby expanding our manufacturing footprint."
Another project is also underway, where researchers are working to create optical components from ultrapure diamond, such as lenses that operate in the infrared spectrum during thermal imaging, and lasers for industrial cutting.
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