Microfabrication for Industrial Applications

Book excerpt: Microfabrication for Industrial Applications focuses on the industrial perspective for micro- and nanofabrication methods including large-scale manufacturing, transfer of concepts from lab to factory, process tolerance, yield, robustness, and cost. It gives a history of miniaturization, micro- and nanofabrication, and surveys industrial fields of application, illustrating fabrication processes of relevant micro and nano devices.Concerning sub-micron feature manufacture, the book explains: the philosophy of micro/ nanofabrication for integrated circuit industry; thin film deposition; (waveguide, plastic, semiconductor) material processing; packaging; interconnects; stress (e.g., thin film residual); economic; and environmental aspects.Micro/nanomechanical sensors and actuators are explained in depth with information on applications, materials (incl. functional polymers), methods, testing, fabrication, integration, reliability, magnetic microstructures, etc. - Shows engineers & students how to evaluate the potential value of current and nearfuture manufacturing processes for miniaturized systems in industrial environments - Explains the top-down and bottom up approaches to nanotechnology, nanostructures fabricated with beams, nano imprinting methods, nanoparticle manufacturing (and their health aspects), nanofeature analysis, and connecting nano to micro to macro - Discusses issues for practical application cases; possibilities of dimension precision; large volume manufacturing of micro- & nanostructures (machines, materials, costs) - Explains applications of Microsystems for information technology, e.g.: data recording (camera, microphone), storage (memories, CDs), communication; computing; and displays (beamers, LCD, TFT) - Case studies are given for sensors, resonators, probes, transdermal medical systems, micro- pumps & valves, inkjets, DNA-analysis, lab-on-a-chip, & micro-cooling