MICROFABRICATION BY ION MILLING - THE LATHE TECHNIQUE

Several novel and unusual microstructures were made by focused ion beam milling. These microstructures include needles, hooks, forks, and similar shapes resulting from 360-degrees access afforded to the ion beam by a rotation mounting device. The lengths of the microstructures are in the 10 mum range, and the thicknesses all in the 1-2 mum range. Similar procedures were used to make prototype stylus geometries for scanning probe microscopy applications. Resolution limits to the fabrication process come mainly from the grain structure of the material being sputtered. The ion beam is 0.3 mum in diameter, and 0.08 mum pixel resolution for ion beam location was used to generate the objects. Start-to-finish fabrication time for most of the objects made was approximately 2 h without any effort to streamline the process.