Measurement of roundness and sphericity of the micro sphere based on atomic force microscope

The measuring system was developed based on a reconstructed atomic force microscope (AFM) combined with the precision rotating air-bearing and assistant transform shaft. By this system the experiment was carried out according to the principle of three orthogonal orientations towards a micro sphere about 0.46 mm in diameter, and nine one-dimensional traces around the sphere were obtained. Analyses on roundness and sphericity are carried out from the measured data.The results show that the maximal roundness is 0.3895 μm, and the sphericity error is 0.3880 μm. These evaluations are significant references to evaluate its fabrication accuracy or to reform its machining processes.