Fabrication of Ultra-Thin Lapping Carriers for Quartz Crystal Using Electroforming Technique(Machine Elements, Design and Manufacturing)

Abstract

Lapping carriers are used as retainers of workpieces in double side polishing. High carbon steel is a material widely used for the lapping carrier due to the high hardness and tensile strength of the material. However, the thin steel carries are expensive because of their complex fabrication processes. In this paper, we propose a novel fabrication process of the lapping carriers using a electroforming technique to reduce costs of carriers. Ni-P alloy electroforming and composite electroforming with potassium-titanate fiber are found to be effective to improve hardness and tensile strength, respectively. The electroforming film having a high hardness and strength equivalent to the high carbon steel can be realized using Ni-P-Fe alloy electroforming. A photo-resist patterning method enables us to fabricate thin and high precision electrode rapidly. It is confirmed that the fabricated carries can be used in the double side polishing machine.