The nucleation and propagation of dislocations and its consequence on the defect structure in silicon during nanometric cutting are not well known, although the amorphization and high pressure phase transformation studies on silicon have remained at the epicentre of research across various disparate disciplines for over a decade. This paper proposes a new mechanism of crystal plasticity identified by a fully automated dislocation extraction algorithm in molecular dynamics simulations of nanometric cutting of silicon for different cutting planes/directions at a wide range of temperatures (300 K-1500 K). Alongside amorphization of silicon, our simulations revealed nanoscale stochastic nucleation of dislocations and stacking faults, which serve as mediators of microscopic plasticity during various contact loading operations and manufacturing processes of silicon. Of interest is that, irrespective of the cutting temperature, the stacking faults, which were not formed for both the (010)[100] and (111)[1 ̅10] crystal setups, were generated with three atomic layers in the (110)[001 ̅] cutting

A sequential micro-machining process chain is described as the machining strategy whereby two or more micro-machining techniques are implemented in sequence on same or different machine tools. This is in contrast to hybrid micro-machining where two standalone machining technologies are integrated together. A recent surge of interest is geared towards building sequential micro-machining capabilities on a single machine tool to avoid realignment and registration errors between processes. One of the major advantages of performing sequential micro-machining on a single machine tool is that it suppresses repositioning errors so enabling much higher levels of accuracy (and thereby tighter tolerances), reduced rejection of machined components, and lower production time; all of these would be otherwise unachievable. Thus, multifunctional micro-machining centres are attracting global interest. Clearly, the necessity of developing reconfigurable, precise and flexible manufacturing is a key driver to this trend. This review aims to provide a critical insight into the recent trends and new classification of sequential micro-machining processes with a special focus on evaluation of such capabilities built on a single machine tool and further potentials. The machining capabilities, advantages and opportunities in the area of sequential micro-machining techniques are evaluated thoroughly and the directions for future work are highlighted