三次元プローブ用高精度シリコン平行ばねセンサ

抄録

A one-dimensional sensor is developed for the purpose of an analog probe with nanometer order resolution for coordinate measuring machines. The manufactured sensor has parallel-spring structure, to which a single-crystal silicon of 3mm cube is broached and on which the piezoresistances are processed. The piezoresistance can be constructed in a Wheatstone-bridge, and a signal output can be obtained. The result of characteristics evaluation of a single parallel-spring sensor shows that the elastic compliance is 3 micrometer/N, the measuring resolution is 15nm and the eigenfrequency is 29kHz. These values are well in agreement with the theoretical values. From theoretical consideration, it is estimated that the measurement ranges are 180 micrometers and the minimum eigenfrequency is about 10kHz in a 3-dimensional probe.