Surface finishing and evaluation of three-dimensional silicon microchannel using magnetorheological fluid

A surface-finishing method for three-dimensional microchannel structures is proposed. The method utilizes magnetorheological fluid mixed with abrasives as a polishing tool. The influences of the process parameters on the material removal were investigated, and the surface topographies before and after finishing were compared. When a microchannel was finished by proposed method, the roughness of bottom and side surfaces of the silicon channel was reduced by a factor of 5-10, and the pressure drop of a gas flow through the single microchannel was lowered to 26.7% of the pressure drop in an unfinished microchannel The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method was effective in finishing of microstructures.