Surface-Sensing Principle of Microprobe System for Micro-Scale Coordinate Metrology: A Review

Abstract

Micro-coordinate measuring machines (micro-CMMs) for measuring microcomponents require a probe system with a probe tip diameter of several tens to several hundreds of micrometers. Scale effects work for such a small probe tip, i.e., the probe tip tends to stick on the measurement surface via surface adhesion forces. These surface adhesion forces significantly deteriorate probing resolution or repeatability. Therefore, to realize micro-CMMs, many researchers have proposed microprobe systems that use various surface-sensing principles compared with conventional CMM probes. In this review, the surface-sensing principles of microprobe systems were the focus, and the characteristics were reviewed. First, the proposed microprobe systems were summarized, and the probe performance trends were identified. Then, the individual microprobe system with different sensing principles was described to clarify the performance of each sensing principle. By comprehensively summarizing multiple types of probe systems and discussing their characteristics, this study contributed to identifying the performance limitations of the proposed micro-probe system. Accordingly, the future development of micro-CMMs probes is discussed.