Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T04:29:14.551Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fabrication of Mems Devices by Powder-Filling into DXRL-Formed Molds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Terry J. Garino
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-141 1, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1411
Todd Christenson
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-141 1, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1411
Eugene Venturini
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-141 1, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1411
Get access

Abstract

We have developed a variety of processes for fabricating components for micro devices based on deep x-ray lithography (DXRL). Although the techniques are applicable to many materials, we have demonstrated them using hard (Nd 2Fe14B) and soft (Ni-Zn ferrite) magnetic materials because of the importance of these materials in magnetic micro-actuators and other devices and because of the difficulty fabricating them by other means. The simplest technique involves pressing a mixture of magnetic powder and a binder into a DXRL-formed mold. In the second technique, powder is pressed into the mold and then sintered to densify. The other two processes involve pressing at high temperature either powder or a dense bulk material into a ceramic mold that was previously made using a DXRL mold. These techniques allow arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes to be made 10 to 1000 μm thick with in-plane dimensions as small as 50μm and dimensional tolerances in the micron range. Bonded isotropic Nd2Fe14B micro-magnets made by these processes had an energy product of 7 MGOe.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Guckel, H, Proc. of the IEEE, 86 p. 86 (1998).Google Scholar
2. Christenson, T. R. and Guckel, H., in Proceedings SPIE Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology, 2639 p. 134 (1995).Google Scholar
3. Christenson, T. R., Garino, T.J., Venturini, E.L., “Deep X-Ray Lithography Based Fabrication of Rare-Earth Based Permanent Magnets and their Applications to Microactuators,” to be published in the Fifth International Symposium on Magnetic Materials, Processes and Devices, from the 194th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, 1998.Google Scholar
4. Halbach, K., in High Performance Permanent Magnets/1987, Edited by Sankar, S. G., Herbst, J. F. and Koon, N.C. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 96, Pittsburgh, PA 1987), p.259.Google Scholar
5. Coey, J.M.D. in Rare-Earth Iron Permanent Magnets, edited by Coey, J. M. D. (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1996), p. 9.Google Scholar
6. Harris, I. R. in Rare-Earth Iron Permanent Magnets, edited by Coey, J. M. D. (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1996), p. 353–70.Google Scholar
7. Goldman, A., Modern Ferrite Technology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1990, pp. 6775 Google Scholar
8. Ritzhaupt-Kleissel, H.-J., Bauer, W., Gfinther, E., Laubersheimer, J. and Haußelt, J., Microsystem Technologies 2, p. 1301 (1996).Google Scholar
9. Reference 7, pp. 116–31.Google Scholar