The national standard for length in Slovenia is materialised by gauge blocks 0,5 to 1000 mm. These gauge blocks are traceable to the primary standard and are used as a reference standard for calibrating standards from industry and calibration laboratories. The best measurement capability is not comparable with the capabilities of other European national laboratories having interferometric calibration systems but is covering the industrial needs at the moment. However, our aim is to improve measurement capability without involving interferometric system which would be too expensive for the industry. Research work in this field, which is focused in critical uncertainty contributions like calibration of the equipment, as well as environmental and human influences, is represented in the article. The calibration system will be improved by reconstruction of the device and surfaces for thermal stabilisation of gauge blocks and by automation of the measurement process. Numerous experiments for analysis of thermal and human influences have already been performed and the model for diminishing these influences was established.

Microsystems are miniaturised technical components in dimensions of mm, which consist of mechanical and electronic or optic functions and functional elements. Microsystems are used as sensors and actuators in different applications for automobiles, medical techniques or peripheral computer equipment. They are manufactured in series or small series. Sensors, actuators and many technical microproducts require components with small dimensional form and surface tolerances in the µm range. If one includes the physical processes, precision starts to reach nano levels. The tolerances of microsystems are defined as functional tolerances. This paper deals with requirements for tolerancing systems for miniaturised components and functional elements. The different criteria and systems as well as basics for possible standards are elaborated. It is even a contribution to the discussion about the necessity of new tolerancing systems, questions of calibration and the usage of measuring systems to detect deviations in microgeometry, physical characterisation and integration of measurement in industrial manufacturing systems.

The imaging results of a group of experiments concerned with imaging two ultraprecise fabricated samples composed of Cu- and Al-alloies as well as silicon coated with C-N ion-beams in 1 µm scan range, have been analysed and discussed. The sources of SPM (Scanning Probe Micoscope) artifacts and the affect factors of the SPM images are presented and investigated. It is concluded that so many scanning images looking like “atoms” topography structure obtained have been misunderstood in the world, because it is very difficult to correctly and properly in terpret so many kinds of SPM artifacts in the imaging practice applications.

The formation of the surface roughness during the machining of hardened steel, similar to the machining of “soft” materials, so far has been considered as a function of the cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed, cutting depth), the minimal chip thickness and the nose radius. Experimental results have not proved the theoretical calculations to be correct, and appeared to have a significant deviation. Actually the surface roughness is depending on the condition and roughness of the cutting edge to a great extent. Theoretical examinations can confirm our experience that a correlation occurs between the cutting edge roughness and the surface roughness. In our exposition we would like to explain our machining experiments, and theoretical examinations, which are mend to complexly expose the relations between the cutting circumstances and the surface roughness.

New packaging concepts are required for power electronic modules allowing to dissipate high loss power density levels at low operation temperatures. Best heat removal from a substrate is obtained using liquid coolants. However, in this way the heat transfer coefficient is limited by the Leidenfrost phenomenon. A promising attempt to improve the thermal transfer significantly is the development of silicon substrates structured with microwhiskers perpendicular to the surface. However, an industrial application of this new technology for heatspreaders in power electronic modules makes necessary the specification of the substrate properties. In this work a new method for determination of thermal qualities based on laser heating of the heatspreader, surface temperature measurement by thermovision, and dynamic reverse modelling is described. Based on these results prospectively possible applications and limits of such heatspreaders for power electronics assemblies are derived.