Synchrotron radiation for microstructure fabrication

摘要

Most of the presently known microstructures are still fabricated using silicon-based technologies. Hoever, in the case of abrication using ansiotropic etching, geometrical limitations due to the crystallograhpic nature of silicon prevent the design of any in-plane structure shapes. If microsystems, built by means of reactive ion etiching and scrificial layer technology do have freedom for lateral geometry, they are limited to a few micrometers height only. Nevertheless, and in spite of difficulties to always answer the demands in the best way, real microsystemsare produced by these techniques and are currently present on the market. To overpass these limitations, other technologies have been studied and developed in recent years. among them the LIGA process (German acronym for Lithography, Electroplating, Molding), which uses synchrotron radiation and in particular its hard X-Ray spectrum, is certainly the most promissing one regarding to, very high aspect ratio, submicron precision, arbitrary patterning and mass production capabilities. Furthermore, LIGA can handle a large variety of materials to fabricate microsystems.