New developments of process technologies for microfabrication

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Abstract
Economic success of microsystems technology requires cost- effective fabrication in large series as well as a great diversity of materials processing technologies. The different techniques of micro molding meet all these requirements. An important economic factor is the reduction of cycle time by process and tool optimization with simulation techniques. Actually, minimal cycle times are about two minutes in certain cases. Evolution of thermoplastics processing technologies is demonstrated by application of technical or even high- performance polymers like PEEK, PMMA or PSU. For manufacturing of metal microstructures, we develop three possibilities: microstructures like stepped LIGA gear wheels are obtained from galvanization on lost molds, which have been injection molded using conductively filled polymers. Additionally, electroless plating is used to replicate nonconducting plastic microstructures and the metal injection molding (MIM) process is under development. A quite different approach uses polymer precursors containing monomer/polymer mixtures in reaction injection molding. We chose photoinduced polymerization without any preheating step using photopolymerizable resins. Avoiding the time consuming thermal cycle, molding takes place at ambient temperature. Due to the low viscosity, the microcavities should be filled completely. The process is characterized by the integration of a powerful UV-source and a partially glass made molding tool.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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