Omesh Kamat

Professor Brown
Final Paper Surface Metrology
October 21, 2012
What I Learned
What is surface metrology? Surface metrology is the measurement and analysis of
features of surfaces and its behaviors. Surface form, waviness, and roughness are all parameters
that are most associated with surface metrology. Why is surface metrology important? Surfaces
are chaotic, and so surface metrology helps with measurement and analysis of creation of the
surface and its behavior by using tools such as the Olympus LEXT OLS4000 Microscope.
To better understand surface metrology, it is important to comprehend roughness.
Surfaces cover everything and so roughness is very important. Roughness is either made in
nature or man-made. Manufacturing is the process used to make surfaces with desired properties.
It is good to know that roughness is valuable because it can be useful with lubrication, adhesion,
and friction and roughness also influences performance. People usually believe that smoother is
better but that is not always the case. In the beginning, smooth is better but then as roughness
increases later, performances increases as well. The most commonly used roughness
measurement is RA which is average roughness. Also there are cutoffs for specifying roughness
and this is usually given by the designer. Different cutoffs have a huge impact on roughness
values and so it is very important to get the cutoff beforehand.
It is not only necessary to know what roughness is, but it is also important to know how
to measure and calculate roughness. As Lord Kelvin said, When you measure, you have to
express it in numbers and then you know something about it. There are many ways of doing

measurement of the surface but the two main ones are contact and optical measurement. Contact
is when there is a force holding a stylus down on a surface and it shows what the surface is like
on a vertical graph. A down-side of contact measurement is that sensitive surfaces can be
damaged because of the stylus and the force holding down on it. Optical is the use of an
instrument such as the Olympus LEXT OLS4000 to get a measurement and then analyze it in
3D. This way, there is a great, sharp image and height information can be found by changing it to
3 dimensional. There are different measurements that can be found using either technique. Not
only there is the RA but there is also RQ (standard deviation of surface heights), RT (peak to
valley), RP (peak height), and RV (valley height). Average roughness is sometimes useless
because it is independent of what order the heights are observed. The R A is also insensitive to the
fine scale topographic details.
In surface metrology, correlating and discriminating are very important. Correlation helps
with the optimization of the product and design while discrimination helps with quality
assurance. For correlation, it is important to make a graph of performance versus roughness and
manufacturing versus roughness. This has to be done with experimentation. There are many
approaches to multi-scale fractal analysis. One is scale decomposition where form is the largest
scale, then waviness, and finally roughness. Then there is the discrimination test which is
comparing F- test to critical mean scale ratio and correlation test which is comparing the
different correlation coefficients of each scale.
Another important topic is relative length (length scale fractal analysis). It is necessary to
notice that relative length depends on the scale and as scale is decreased, usually relative length
increases. The formula for relative length is the sum of all (1/cos (angle in terms of x axis) *
(projected length of step/total projected length)). Area scale fractal analysis is another technique

used in surface metrology. Triangular patches are used at different scales and this calculated the
apparent area. Then the relative area is calculated area/nominal area. The formula for relative
area is the sum of all (1/cos (angle in terms of x axis)*(projected area of triangle/total projected
area)). Area is very important as a texture characterization parameter because it is in many
different processes such as in mass transfer, and Newtons law of cooling. It is necessary to know
that the area of a surface is not unique it depends on the scale of observation or calculation.
For discrimination and correlation tests, the process is to first prepare the surfaces,
measure the textures, analyze the measurements and calculate characterization parameters, and
then finally run statistical tests. To analyze, it is good to first select a method, then remove
artifacts, and use filtering. In statistical tests, for discrimination do F and T tests from statistics.
For correlation, do the regression tests. In the end, decomposition by scale can improve the
ability to discriminate and find correlations.
Finally, the last presentation was about axiomatic designs and how they are the best
designs. An axiomatic design is based on two laws, maximize the independence of the functional
elements, and minimize the information content. This way the design can avoid unintended
consequences and maximize chance of success. It is important to be able to tell a good design
from a bad one. In engineering design, one can either use the algorithmic approach or the
axiomatic approach. Algorithmic approach assumes correct process results in good result and
requires trial and error. This does not give the guarantee of having the best solution. Axiomatic
approach on the other hand, provides axioms and is a way of arriving at the best design solution
for the requirements given.
The three basic elements of engineering design are axioms (maximize independence,
minimize information), structures (horizontal decomposition, vertical decomposition), and

processes (zigzagging decomposition, physical integration). Some of the domains in structures

are customer needs CN what adds value, functional requirements FR what it does, design
parameters DP what it looks like, process variables PV how you make it, and constraints
CON what needs to be avoided.