Nanogrinding with abrasives

The coating of piezoelectric materials with diamond particles, or fashioning an abrasive material coated to a piezoelectric material using a laser, has enabled the production of truly flat substrates so that features can be created on materials using a manufacturing process known as nanogrinding with abrasives. The principle of the process relies on applying an electric current to the abrasivecoated piezoelectric material that causes the material to strain in various directions. When the piezoelectric material is touching the substrate material, the abrasive particles remove small pieces of the substrate. The magnitude of the applied current controls the material removal rate. The process can be used to process many materials especially in the production of nanoscale channels that are used in micro- and nanofluidic devices. To achieve the generation of flat surfaces, the process must be executed within a specially constructed vibration dampening machine tool. This chapter describes recent developments in the field of nanogrinding with abrasives. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2009, 2015. All rights are reserved.