Microfabrication for Industrial Applications (eBook)

Currently available books on micro- and nanofabrication, MEMS and related topics fall short in discussing industrial application and large-scale manufacturing. The transfer of fabrication concepts from laboratory to factory is often avoided; process tolerance, yield, robustness, and process costs are largely irrelevant in academic research, but essential for industrial development.This book, however, explains micro- and nanofabrication methods from an industrial perspective. Background theory is provided only to better illustrate fabrication process characteristics and operation of micro- and nanostructured devices for industrially relevant applications. Here engineers and students alike will find the information necessary to correctly evaluate the potential value of currently available and near-future manufacturing processes for miniaturized systems in an industrial environment. Both authors have a background in academia and in high-tech industrial environments, and have been involved in micro- and nanomanufacturing developments for over a decade. The lessons that they learned about technology transfer from laboratory to fabrication is collected here for the first time. Other fabrication topics addressed include regulatory, safety and health, and environmental issues for specific and illustrative application cases; what specific micro- and nanostructures can be manufactured; what dimension precision can be achieved; and how to manufacture large volumes of micro- and nanostructures (including machines, materials and processing costs, and costs of machinery ownership). Shows engineers & students how to evaluate the potential value of current and nearfuture manufacturing processes for miniaturized systems in industrial environments Explains the top-down and bottom up approaches to nanotechnology, nanostructures fabricated with beams, nano imprinting methods, nanoparticle manufacturing (and their health aspects), nanofeature analysis, and connecting nano to micro to macro Discusses issues for practical application cases; possibilities of dimension precision; large volume manufacturing of micro- & nanostructures (machines, materials, costs) Explains applications of Microsystems for information technology, e.g.: data recording (camera, microphone), storage (memories, CDs), communication; computing; and displays (beamers, LCD, TFT) Case studies are given for sensors, resonators, probes, transdermal medical systems, micro- pumps & valves, inkjets, DNA-analysis, lab-on-a-chip, & micro-cooling