Many advanced accelerator approaches share extreme requirements on beam sizes, alignment tolerances, and attendant constraints on support systems. Dielectric Laser Accelerators present additional challenges in fabrication, material selection, and tolerance budgeting due to their optical-scale mechanical structures and sub-wavelength features. We detail these challenges using our experiences with the Micro Accelerator Platform as examples. The MAP is a resonant, slab-symmetric cavity formed using thin-film stacks on opposing substrates. Fabrication required a range of micro- and nano-technology foundry techniques, including lithography, thin film deposition, etching, polishing, bonding and dicing. It has proven even more difficult to characterize the built structures, including measurement of key parameters and performance metrics. Finally, tolerance budgeting has been an ongoing area of refinement involving iterations between simulation studies and process refinement.
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