Study Of 3D Microstructure Fabrication System Based On Laser-induced Thermoplastic Formation

Three-dimensional (3D) microstructure fabrication method is one of the key technologies of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System). Efficient and economical 3D microstructure fabrication methods play an indispensable role of the development of MEMS technology. Among a large number of 3D microstructure fabrication methods, laser micro-fabrication technology has the characteristics of non-contact, non-polluting, low noise and easy to achieve the intelligent control, it can overcome some shortcomings of other processing techniques. So it is more and more widely used in the field of MEMS.In this article, we established a novel 3D microstructure fabrication and monitoring system based on the laser-induced thermoplastic formation. It is laser direct writing without mask, can fabricate 3D microstructures efficiently, rapidly and low cost. This new technical approach has broad application prospects in micro-mechanics, micro-optics technology, microelectronic technology, micro-optical electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and micro/nano-technology and so on.In this project, the innovations and research achievement is as follows:We developed a 3D microstructure fabrication and monitoring system based on laser-induced thermoplastic formation. We designed the optical circuit subsystem, mechanical, control and monitoring module. While fabricating, the microscope process can be monitored in real-time. So it can be easily for us to observe the phenomenon of thermoplastic material caused by focused laser beam. The system has low cost, simple operation, the module can be strong substitution, etc., it can realize microstructure quickly and easily fabrication.We also designed a 3D microstructure fabrication and CCD imaging monitoring software system. It includes the capabilities of fabricating 3D microstructures, real-time fabrication microscope process monitoring, and acquisition of fabricating process video, graphics and digital image processing. By setting different fabrication parameters or reading DXF files, it can easily fabricate a variety of 3D microstructures.We used the software in the PC directly controlling the statement of lasers and moving position and speed of two-dimensional electronic-control moving units, rather than indirectly controlling through microcomputer system which is largely used in the past micro-fabrication system, we can easily change the software function by rewrite the software codes without having to get re-burned into the microcontroller. In this way, we make the system more flexibility and versatile.In the end, using 3D microstructure fabrication and monitoring system, we have done a lot of experiments on paraffin based on laser-induced thermoplastic formation and gained some 3D microstructures such as point, line and so on. The experimental results well verify that the system is stable and accuracy. We have also fabricated some complex 3D microstructures on different thermoplastic materials. Some of them can be used in practice.