Technology
A research team led by Kazuya Yamamura, an
associate professor of Osaka University, developed a polishing technology to
smooth the surface of such hard materials as silicon carbide without damaging
it. The technology is to polish the surface using an abrasive grain softer than
the base material, while irradiating the surface with plasma to make it soft.
It uses cerium oxide abrasive grain used to polish glass that is softer than
silicon carbide, while oxidizing the surface using atmospheric-pressure plasma
made up of vapor and helium gas.
It takes only about one hour for the newly
developed plasma-aided polishing method to smooth the surface of off-the-shelf
silicon carbide. Improvement of the efficient use of plasma oxidation can
shorten the time. Because it uses glow discharge plasma processable at a low
temperature, the surface temperature is lower than 100 degrees centigrade and
not affected by temperature rise. In addition, it is eco-friendly because it
does not use chemicals and because it is free from any cost to treat the
chemicals. It can be applied to the polishing of such ultrahard materials as sapphire
substrate, tungsten carbide, and sintered silicon carbide. The research team
plans to put the new technology into practical use in alliance with
companies.
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