Progress Towards Commercial LIGA Applications in Australia

摘要

Australia is building a new synchrotron and there is much publicity around its potential industrial use, including for microfabrication. For this to happen there is a need to develop a community of industries involved in product design who are familiar with the processes and potential of LIGA / HARMST and this needs to be done prior to the availability of a local capability. MiniFAB has been developing such a client base with some success however a number of key issues have been raised concerning the true operational status of LIGA and the ability of synchrotron centres to produce designs against a standard process on time and within a reasonable budget. An issue facing a small company such as MiniFAB is its role in stimulating the development of new local Australian manufacturing infrastructure, and/or the use international facilities already operational.