Integration of Fabrication Technology for Micromechatronics

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The research project aims at the integration of micromachining technologies to fabricate micromechatronic systems ; these systems are composed of microstructures, actuators, electronic circuits, sensors and optical devices. Because the process technologies for these elements differ each other, it is difficult to apply them all together to built a mcirosystem.We have selected three target systems : (1) Micro optical systems, (2) scanning probe microscopes, and (3) Scanner for mili-wave anttena. Design, fabrication processes and testing of the systems were carried out.(1) As for micro optical systems, an optical aligner based on a microactuated stage was designed. The stage should have three dimensional (3-D) shapes to enable multi-degree-of-freedom alignment. We have developed a new technology to self-assemble 3-D microstructures made of polysilicon films. Surface micromachined thin films, i.e.flat microstructures, were elastically deformed into 3-D shapes by the force of microactuators … More . The deformation was fixed by annealing structures with Joule heating. No manual manipulation of structures was needed in the process.(2) As for scanning probe microscopes, an atomic force microscope (AFM) using a very small vibrational probe, called nano-cantilever, was designed. Due to the small mass of the cantilever and the associated high vibrational frequency, it is expected to have extra high sensitivity. The tip of the cantilever was electrochemically etched in a thin film of electrolite. We succeeded to apply the probe in the AFM.(3) The scanner for mili-wave antena was composed of a tortional stage with the antenna on top, a triangular support with electrostatic driving electrodes and a mili-wave oscillator. The anntena was patterned using thin-film technology. The stage and the support were bulk-micromachined from a fused-quartz substrate and a silicon substrate, respectively. The oscillator was made by the compound semiconductor technology, At the last process, all of them are assembled together. We confirmed the motion of scanner by electrostatic actuation and also the mili-wave emission from the antenna. Thus we demostrated the feasibility of the combined usage of different micromachining processes. Less