Abstract
This paper present a method of rapid replication of polymeric high aspect ratio microstructures (HARMs) and a method of rapid reproduction of metallic micromold inserts for HARMs using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) casting and standard LIGA processes. A high aspect ratio (HAR) metallic micromold insert, featuring a variety of test microstructures made of electroplated nickel with 15:1 height-to-width ratio for 300 μm microstructures, was fabricated by the standard LIGA process using deep X-ray lithography (DXRL). A 10:1 mixture of pre-polymer PDMS and a curing agent were cast onto the HAR metallic micromold insert, cured and peeled off to create reverse images of the HAR metallic micromold insert in PDMS. In addition to the replication of polymeric HARMs, replicated PDMS HARMS were coated with a metallic sacrificial layer and electroplated in nickel to reproduce another metallic micromold insert. This method can be used to rapidly and massively reproduce HAR metallic micromold inserts in low cost mass production manner without further using DXRL.
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Received: 10 August 2001/Accepted: 24 September 2001
This work was supported in part by the subcontract from the University of Cincinnati that was originally awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and Air Force under the grant number F30602-00-1-0569. The support of the staff of the Solid State Laboratory at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) at LSU are acknowledged. Valuable technical discussions with Professor Kelly at the Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr. Göttert at CAMD, and Mr. Mook at the Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU are greatly appreciated.
This paper was presented at the Fourth International Workshop on High Aspect Ratio Microstructure Technology HARMST 2001 in June 2001.
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Kim, K., Park, S., Lee, JB. et al. Rapid replication of polymeric and metallic high aspect ratio microstructures using PDMS and LIGA technology. Microsystem Technologies 9, 5–10 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-002-0194-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-002-0194-6