Enhancement of Life Time for PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Drill Bit by Nitrogen Ion Implantation

Implantation of metals and ceramics with ions of nitrogen and other species has improved surface properties such as friction, wear and corrosion in numerous industrial applications. In recent years, PCB drills tend to be more minimized increasingly as the electronics components have been more highly accumulated and minimized. Therefore nitrogen ion implantation was performed onto PCB drill (0.15 & 0.3 mm in diameter), in order to investigate mechanical properties of WC-Co cermets surface through Nano-indentation tests. PCB drill was implanted at energy of 70 keV, 90 keV, 120 keV and with the dose range of $1{\times}10^{17}$ and $5{\times}10^{17}\;ions/cm^{2}$. After ion implantation, WC-Co PCB drill bits was tested in actual operating situation to apply cutting tools industry and is concluded that the life time of nitrogen ion implanted PCB drills is one and a half times longer than the unimplanted.