Fabrication of MEMS devices by powder-filling into DXRL-formed molds

摘要

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_2Fe_(14)B) 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. Theses techniques allow arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes to be made 10 to 1000 #mu# m thick with in-plane dimensions as small as 50 #mu# m and dimensional tolerances in the micron range. Bonded istropic Nd_2Fe_(14) micro-magnets made by these processes had an energy product of 7 MGOe.