Replication of optical MEMS structures in sol-gel materials

A replication method of fabrication for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) structures is presented, for use as an alternative to silicon processing. UV-curable ORMOCER(R) sol-gel is used as base material. The basic fabrication process involves deposition and patterning of a sacrificial spacer layer and a combined molding and photolithography step. This method allows creation of free-standing micro-mechanical elements with monolithic integration of high resolution micro-optical structures. Strain due to the shrinkage of the ORMOCER(R) sol-gel material during processing has been measured using test structures. Possible applications of this fabrication process are optical MEMS devices that incorporate lenses, diffractive optics or waveguides. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.