Micromachined cutting blade formed from {211}-oriented silicon

Patent · Tue Aug 09 04:00:00 EDT 2011

OSTI ID:1026664

Fleming, James G ^[1]; Sniegowski, Jeffry J ^[2]; Montague, Stephen ^[1]

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1. Albuquerque, NM
2. Tijeras, NM

A cutting blade is disclosed fabricated of micromachined silicon. The cutting blade utilizes a monocrystalline silicon substrate having a {211} crystalline orientation to form one or more cutting edges that are defined by the intersection of {211} crystalline planes of silicon with {111} crystalline planes of silicon. This results in a cutting blade which has a shallow cutting-edge angle .theta. of 19.5.degree.. The micromachined cutting blade can be formed using an anisotropic wet etching process which substantially terminates etching upon reaching the {111} crystalline planes of silicon. This allows multiple blades to be batch fabricated on a common substrate and separated for packaging and use. The micromachined cutting blade, which can be mounted to a handle in tension and optionally coated for increased wear resistance and biocompatibility, has multiple applications including eye surgery (LASIK procedure).

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• Assignee: Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
• Patent Number(s): 7,992,309
• Application Number: 10/421,025
• OSTI ID: 1026664
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE