A Review of State of the Art of Electron Beam and Ion Beam Machining

Energy beam machining is a type of micro/nano-manufacturing technology for advanced materials. The energy beam is composed of the matter which exhibits not only particle but also wave-like behaviors. In this paper, we focused on the energy beam machining using the charged particles, which is classified into electron beam and ion beam machining. The equipment and principles of irradiation of electron beam and ion beam are investigated, and the range of technologies according to the energy beam characteristics is summarized. For the electron beam machining, recent studies for equipment development of surface heat treatment process and electron beam melting process using low-power electron beam are summarized. For the ion beam machining, recent studies on focused ion beam machining with various materials, such as high hardness materials, optical materials and semiconductor materials, are summarized. The studies for improving the accuracy and productivity of focused ion beam machining was is summarized. It was found that numerous technologies using the energy beam have been achieved for manufacturing of micro/nano-components with high precision. It is expected that the energy beam machining becomes a promising manufacturing technology for advanced materials.