Innovative molding technologies for the fabrication of components for microsystems

Economic success of microsystems technology requires a wide range of materials as well as the related manufacturing processes. A suitable technology for medium/large scale production is micro injection molding which actually allows the manufacturing of plastic microstructures with 20 microns minimum thickness, structural details of approx. 0.2 microns or maximum aspect ratios of more than 20. These microstructures are, for example, applied as components in micro optics, micro fluidics or minimally invasive surgery. This is demonstrated by microparts that are currently available or will be available soon. For higher economic efficiency and cost reduction, fully electrical injection molding machines of higher accuracy have been applied. Also, micro insert injection molding reduces mounting costs. Manufacturing of metal or ceramic microparts by powder injection molding allows large-scale production of complex shaped microstructures with a wide range of materials. Typical examples are sintered structures like stepped LIGA-gear wheels with minimal dimensions of 50 microns in different metal and ceramic materials. Micro Precision Casting originating from conventional investment casting is a suitable process for small/mediun-scale production. Examples are microturbine housings made of precious metal alloys. An approach similar to rapid prototyping applies photocurable reactive resins. Photoinduced molding of low viscous resins under ambient conditions leads to significantly reduced cycle times. Additionally, rapid testing of new composite material can be performed easyly. Microcomponents molded from polymers and different composites like dyes with nonlinear optical properties and nanosized ceramic powders will be presented.