Premium
Powder‐Based Tin Oxide Microcomponents on Silicon Substrates Fabricated by Micromolding in Capillaries
Author(s) -
Heule Martin,
Schell Julia,
Gauckler Ludwig J.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.2003.tb03313.x
Subject(s) - materials science , microfabrication , ceramic , capillary action , wafer , silicon , pdms stamp , soft lithography , suspension (topology) , composite material , tin oxide , nanotechnology , silicon oxide , oxide , metallurgy , silicon nitride , fabrication , medicine , alternative medicine , mathematics , pathology , homotopy , pure mathematics
With the introduction of soft lithography and micromolding in capillaries, low‐cost microfabrication with liquid materials has become possible. In this article, we demonstrate how to fabricate porous ceramic lines of 10 μm width and several millimeter length on silicon wafer substrates by using colloidal suspensions of tin oxide. Microchannels of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) served as molds that were spontaneously filled owing to capillary forces with suspensions of 0.1–40 vol% solid loading. The resulting ceramic lines have a height of about 7 μm and therefore differ from the usual ceramic thin film coatings. The capillary filling characteristics were observed under the microscope, and the implications of rheology and suspension chemistry are discussed and evaluated. Using the same capillaries, even smaller lines (2–3 μm width) of powder particles could easily be prepared by adjusting only the solid content of the suspensions.