Design and Analysis of a Micromechanical Three-Component Force Sensor for Characterizing and Quantifying Surface Roughness

Roughness, which can represent the trade-off between manufacturing cost and performance of mechanical components, is a critical predictor of cracks, corrosion and fatigue damage. In order to measure polished or super-finished surfaces, a novel touch probe based on three-component force sensor for characterizing and quantifying surface roughness is proposed by using silicon micromachining technology. The sensor design is based on a cross-beam structure, which ensures that the system possesses high sensitivity and low coupling. The results show that the proposed sensor possesses high sensitivity, low coupling error, and temperature compensation function. The proposed system can be used to investigate micromechanical structures with nanometer accuracy.