Proceedings of the 1st IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems January 18 - 21, 2006, Zhuhai,

China

3D Finite Element Modeling of Laser Machining PMMA

Hengfti Xiang 1, Jianzhong Fu 1 and Zichen Chen 1

'Affiliation 1 (College ofMechanical and Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, China)

Abstract-In order to predict groove shape on laser direct-write polymer microfluidic chip, a three-dimensional transient ablation model has been developed based on heat conduction theory and energy conservation at the erosion surface. The laser is assumed continuous wave Gaussian beam. The finite element surfaces on evaporation side are non-planar and approximated by bilinear polynomial surfaces. An iterative scheme is used to handle the geometric nonlinearity due to the unknown groove shapes. Numerical results about groove shapes and temperature distributions are presented and also compared with those experimental results. The model has been tested using PMMA(polydimethylsiloxane), it is found that numerical results show good agreement with experimental data.

Keywords-laser machining;microfluidic;flnite element;PMMA

I.

INTRODUCTION

Volume-produce and application for microfluidic chips need low cost and high flexible machining method. Polymer microsystem is especially suitable for single-use products such as medical applications. In recent years, a mass of research for production technology for microfluidic chips such as hotembossing or injection moulding, micro-milling, infrared laser ablation represent material-removal fabrication methods. Laser ablation is a new microfabrication method, as is shown for fig. 1. According to computer CAD data, it can machine sophisticated microstructure on metal, plastics and ceramics. It is non-contact tool applied to micromould and microgroove. A series of research for laser microfabrication groove shape has been developed. Klank HE'l and Snakenborg DE21 carried out CO2 laser machining PMMA microfluidic chips. Through research polymer PMMA heat decompose process, they built a groove depth model. The model revealed the relation between groove depth and laser power and scanning velocity. The model was fitted by least squares according to a series of experimental data, and analyzed influence between the microchannel width and length and groove depth. The model could predict the groove depth. M.F. Modest[31 put forward to three-dimensional transient ablation model for laser machining ceramics to predict material transient temperature distribution and groove shape. He solved three-dimensional heat conduction and groove shape using finite difference method and body-fitted coordinate. Based above research, we try to conclude groove model of three dimensional transient microchannels and gain the relation between groove shape and laser power and scanning velocity, as well as temperature distribution everywhere and every time. At last the model is validated by experiment developed by our research center.

machining system (Fig. 1) to groove microfluidic microchannel on PMMA substrate. The user designs patterns using common drawing tools such as AutoCAD. The pattern is then transform into G code and sent to the system for automatic machining. The groove is machined by the ablation process when the laser is focused on the plastic substrate. Variable groove depth can be fabricated by adjusting the laser power, beam scanning speed, or number of passes. The infrared laser used for machining is a carbon dioxide laser, which emits radiation at a wavelength of 10.6 jm. The workpiece material used is PMMA and has a high absorptance (a) of about 0.92 in the infrared. PMMA also combines a low heat capacity with a low heat conductance, which means that any absorbed heat will result in a rapidly rising temperature. Following assumptions are also made in deriving the model: 1. Laser beam is of Gaussian type in CW mode. 2. Material moves at a constant relative velocity. 3. Material is isotropic and opaque with constant thermal and optical properties. 4. Material removal is a surface phenomenon and phase change from solid to vapor occurs in one step. 5. Evaporated material is transparent and does not interfere with incident laser beam. 6. Heat losses by convection and radiation from the surfaces to the environment can be ignored. Based on these assumptions and heat conduction function, the mathematical statement of the problem can be written as follows

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THREE DIMENSIONAL TRANSIENT LASER MACHINING PMMA We designed and fabricated a direct-write CO2 laser
II.

Fig. 1 Geometrical arrangement of laser and workpiece

pc _ = ki

aT

at

(a2T 02T 02T)

2y a ax2

a2)

(1)

This project was funded by the Chinese National 863 Plan (Project code: 2002AA421 150 ) *Contact author: for fabrication aspects of this project please contact superxiang2000l163.com

1-4244-0140-2/06/$20.00 C)2006 IEEE

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the boundary conditions can be expressed as

x-*+oo,y-*+oo, z -oo0, T = T, z = s (x, y,t)

a

(2)

O= f v

-60at oxox ay

dV + q6OdS . (9) --~ z oZZ)

icwO

P exp
2

(xnt) p2 wo

-n

(kVT)+v pL

when laser interacts with the machining material, then

q = aexp( ((x - ut)2 +y2))
n

Nk- VSte

and initial condition can be expressed as

t
=
0

T(x, y, z,0) = T.
n

otherwise q = 0. The variation formulation of the governing equation leads to the following finite variation formulation of the governing equation leads to the following finite element formulation after introducing the shape functions NA (x, y, z) with nodal values 01. For convenience, we use eight node brick element and isoparametric transformation. By isoparametric transformation, the dimensionless variables 4, 1], q are all changed from -1 to 1, which benefits Gaussian integration in the following. Where the shape function is expressed as

where,

is Cartesian coordinates, wo is focal spot t is time, s is local groove depth, p is polymer mat( density, c is specific heat, k is thermal conductivity, a is material's absorptance, n is the unit vector normal to surface pointing into the solid, L is polymer decompo latent heat, Too0 and the following used T, are individu ambient temperature and decomposed temperature u-,v, laser scanning velocity and surface recession velocity. Here ,we first define a thermal diffusion variable a = k 1( For convenience, the governing equations and bounm conditions are defined using dimensionless variables. Here approximates the ratio of conduction losses, for a sur normal to irradiation, and the absorbed laser flux; Ste: Stefan number that compares ablation energy with sens heat.
x, y, z
,

Ni (4^,rI, 4) = 8 8 (1 + Xi4)(l + llill) +

the relationship between x, y, z and matrix are expressed as the following

i =1,2..8 .

(10)

4, r, q and Jacobian

tx
y:
z

i=i
8

L Ni (e, a1,

i=l

Oxi L8 Ni (e, a1, OYi

j..1 -9
8

(11)

X=T
=

OY
Me =

/
A1

aO,=f1W1
p H=

=E1 /
P

t=U-f1Wo2,=
ox i
=

i=i
02z

au .f
ALD Ull-

According to the above equation, Eq.(1) rewritten as

at
ax2 +ay2 az2

Eq.(4)can

ox -) rl ox
LG

a.

au .f

0.
GZ"I

8 Ns

xi
j-1 r 8 C)N

x. .)rl arl j..1 a3] xi 8 s C)y C)z E a. a. i p-i- a x

oN,

j-1
8s

N -HNj

was

8- LN

y.~

1-1 a]
was

(5)

subject to the boundary conditions

x -_o
y

where the dimensionless approximated by

temperature

0 (x, y, z)

=-_o

Z =0

S(X, y, t).

)O(x, y, z) =

L,

Nj (xI y, Z)O

a exp(

-((x ut)2 +y2))-n

-Nk (n VO - V. Ste).(7)

and the initial conditions as

t=O 0=0.

(8)

III. FINITE ELEMENT TRANSFORMATION The governing equation and boundary conditions and initial conditions are solved using a finite element method in three dimensions. The variational formulation leading to an integral form is given as

Fig.2 Eight node brick element isoparametric transformation

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={,, N}(x,y,z)
|[e]
I I I

then the element matrix are expressed as

TNJddd

Etemp

Ftm

= 0
=

(NN

ew

_
_

oold)2

N(onew

NN(
(T 2)

new

old

)2

(Znew )2 ]'2

( 6

[e]= I I IBJddd .

The elemental erosion front with four nodes is approximated by a bilinear polynomial function.

e[F ]= I TqN Jd4d

The global finite element model of the problem can now be expressed as

Z(X, y) = ao + a1x + a2y + a3xy .

zl I1 xl yl xlyl l ao1 z2 I x2 y2 x2y2 a1 z3 [I> x3 y3 x3y3 a2 LI x4 y4 x4y4 a3 J z4J

(17)

[C]{}+ [K]{o}= [F].

where

(13)

[Cl [K] [F]

are known matrices and {O} is the unknown

colunm vector. The time derivative of temperature { } is approximated by a galerkin approximation formula and the matrix equation can now be written as
0
[F
2 ~~[K]L] ]= [C]n + 3 3 Atn+1 [Kf]n
n1

{c]n IAtn+ i[K]n}{0n+Atn [Khoe;1 =[F 1

{22[F]n

+I[F ]n}

(14)

The solution at t = tn+1 is obtained in terms of known solutions at time tn . With initial conditions known at t = 0, the solutions can be found marching in time.
IV.
NUMERICAL RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

Polymer PMMA with good characteristics of large absorptance, neglectable convection heat transfer coefficient, little heat affected domain and easily machined becomes a chief choice in laser fabrication microfluidic chips. Its physical-thermal properties are listed: density p = 1190kg/m3, specific heat c = 1420J/kg K , thermal conductivity k = 0.19w/m K and thermal absorptance is a = 0.92 Decomposing temperature is between 350 -380 C , we defines decomposed temperature as T, = 370 C, and ambient temperature is 20 C ,heat of removal L = 1.8 x I06 J/Kg The finite element model is used to study the process of material removal from a solid surface subjected Gaussian laser beam of constant power. The evaporation rate, groove shape and temperature distribution in materials.Fig.3 and fig.4 show the variation of groove depth with and increase in time for the case of P = 20w, u = 0.3m/s . In fig.5 and fig.6 the 3D groove shape and temperature isothermal line with the half domain for the case of 120x30x15 mesh with P = 20w, u = 0.3m/s , t =0.0064s. To investigate the numerical mode of 3D laser machining PMMA microchannel, a lot of experiments were done to comparison numerical results and with experimental data. A number of channels were cut by adjusting laser power and velocity. Then the channel depth and were measured by digital microscope (VHX- 100, made in Keyence incorporation, Japan). It is indicated that the relation between groove depth and laser power and scanning velocity shown in fig.7. Fig.7a reveals the relation of groove depth and laser power with scanning velocity of u = 0.2,0.4,0.6m/s and fig.7b shows the relation of groove depth and scanning velocity with different power of P = 10, 20,30w . From fig.5 we can see that the finite element results a little larger than experimental data. The reason is that the model neglected the influence of convection and surface reflection, energy loss due to erosion front depart from focal plane and decomposed material failed to disappear and resolidified, so the experiment results is proper. It is shown that the numerical results show good agreement with the experimental data.

The problem domain is initially divided up into a mesh of eight node brick elements. Since the geometry is not known beforehand, computation begins with an assumed domain, which is the original shape of the specimen at the beginning. Once the temperature is calculated for the given domain, the nodal values of the surface temperatures in region are examined, if the boundary conditions are satisfied. If the node temperature is greater than evaporation temperature, then the node should have melted and must have moved farther from the laser. Hence, new position for this node is sought. A simple linear interpolation is introduced.

lnew

a ict

(I ,) Z,ld + ,Z new zi Zi+1 1

_

oi -i+l

(15)

where X is a relaxation factor used to suppress oscillation in iteration. This new value, z act is used to obtain a new domain. Once the new shape of the domain is computed, the iteration continues until the relative sums of squared errors for both nodal temperatures and positions fall below a prescribed tolerance, here the temperature tolerance and node position tolerance are defined as 0.05%.

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Fig.3 The groove depth for different x position with the power 20 w and velocity 0.3 m/s and dimensionless time 1. 0.0125 2. 0.025 3. 0.0375 4. 0.05

Fig.4 The relation between the groove depth and y coordinate with an increase in time

0.2

0.4 0.6 0.8

4

2:::
y
u

Fig.5 Groove shape with laser power 20 m/s with dimensionless time 0.05

*S-.0|\
x

O.4
0.2

Fig.6 The temperature isothermal line for the case of mesh 90xl 8x30
250

150k
100 l

scanning velocity(m/s) 1. v=0.2 2. v=0.4 3. v=0.6

50 k
0

10

15

20

25

30 Power (w)

(a)
500
,

450
1. P 30w

a)

=400 350 300-

250
200-

2. P 20w
3. P 1Ow

150 100
5000.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30

1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2

velocity (mis)

0.35

0.40

(b) Fig.7 Contrast between FEM results and experimental data (a) The relation of the groove depth and laser power with different velocity; (b) The relation of the groove depth and scanning velocity with different laser power

I
5

10

V.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

w, and

scanning velocity 0.3

In order to predict the groove shape and temperature distribution wherever and whenever, we developed a threedimensional transient finite element model. The model is used to analyze the evaporative laser cutting process. The laser has

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high energy intensity, when it heats polymer materials, polymer can rise up to decomposed temperature immediately. To modeling the material removal process, we use eight node brick element and define shape function, heat conduction matrix, specific heat matrix and heat flux matrix. At last assembling the elemental finite element formulation the global finite element model. By time variable finite difference transformation, we conclude a galerkin method solution equation. The laser side elemental surface is approximated by semi-quadratic polynomial function. The temperature distributions show the heat affected zone is not really limited close to the laser position. The geometric nonlinearity due to the unknown groove shape has led to an iterative scheme that sometimes resulted in unstable oscillations during iterations.
[1]

[2] [3]
[4] [5]

[6]

[7]

REFERENCES Klank H, Kutter J P,and Geschke 0, "CO2-Laser Micromachining and back-end processing for rapid production of PMMA-based micro-fluidic systems," 2, Lab on a Chip, 2002, pp.242-246.

[8]
[9]

Snakenborg D, Klank H,Kutter J P, "Microstructure fabrication with a CO2 laser system," 14, Journal of Micromechanics Microengineering, 2004,pp. 182-189. M.F. Modest, "Three-dimensional transient model for laser machining of ablating/decomposing materials," vol. 39, 2, Journal of Heat Mass Transfer, 1996., pp.221-234. Dieter Bauerle, Laser processing and chemistry. Berlin:Springer, 1991. Chryssolouris G, Laser Machining: Theory and Practice. New York: Springer, 1991. Martin F. Jensen,Mikkel Noerholm,Leif Hojslet Christensen, and Oliver Geschke, "Microstructure fabrication with a CO2 laser system: characterization and fabrication of cavities produced by raster scanning of the laser beam," Lab on a Chip, 3, 2003, pp.302-307. Barbara A. Fogarty,Kathleen E. Heppert,Theodore J. Cory,Kalonie R. Hulbutta,R. Scott Martind, and Susan M. Lunte, "Rapid fabrication of poly(dimethylsiloxane)-based microchip capillary electrophoresis devices using CO2 laser ablation," vol. 130, 6, The Analyst, 2005, pp.924-930. Joohan Kim, Xianfan Xu, "Excimer laser fabrication of polymer microfluidic devices," vol.15,4,Journal of Laser Applications,2003,pp. 255-260. Meung Jung Kim*, "3D finite element analysis of evaporative laser cutting," 29,Applied Mathematical Modeling,2005,pp.938-954.

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