Apparatus for manufacturing micro-structure

Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Including cleaning – conditioning or renewing means for...

Reexamination Certificate

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C156S350000, C156S382000, C156S510000, C156S512000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06557607

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to micro-structures such as micro-gears, micro-optical parts, or molds for molding these micro-products manufactured by rapid prototyping, and a manufacturing method and an apparatus thereof, and more particularly relates to micro-structures obtained by laminating thin films consisting of a metal or an insulator which are patterned into sectional forms, and a manufacturing method and an apparatus thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Rapid prototyping has been rapidly popularized recently as a method for molding three dimensional complex form products designed with the aid of a computer within a short time. Three dimensional products manufactured by rapid prototyping are used as parts models (prototype) of various apparatus to predict the suitability of operation or form of parts. This method has been mainly applied to relatively large parts having a size of several cm or larger, however, recently it has been desired to apply this method to manufacture micro-parts formed by precise working such as micro-gears and micro-optical parts. Conventional methods for manufacturing such micro-parts described hereinafter have been known.
(1) Stereolithography (referred to as “conventional example 1” hereinafter)
(2) Selective laser sintering (referred to as “conventional example 2” hereinafter)
(3) Sheet lamination (referred to as “conventional example 3” hereinafter)
(4) Method using thin films as starting material (referred to as “conventional example 4” hereinafter)
(Convention example 1)
FIG. 26
shows the conventional example 1 namely the stereolithography. In the “stereolithography”, photo-curable resin
100
, which is hardened by irradiation of light such as ultraviolet rays, is filled in a tank
101
, a laser beam
102
scans on the surface of the tank
101
two-dimensionally to draw a form corresponding to the cross-sectional data of a three-dimensional product to harden the resin layer
100
a
, then a stage
103
is lowered by one layer, and this process is repeated layer by layer to form the three dimensional product comprising a plurality of resin layers
100
a
. Stereolithography is presented by Ikuta, Nagoya University, in a literature “OPTRONICS, 1996, No. 4, p 103”. According to the special stereolithography, planar form precision of 5 &mgr;m and resolution in the lamination direction of 3 &mgr;m can be attained by optimization of exposure conditions and optimization of resin characteristics. Stereolithography is also presented by Kawata, Osaka University, in a literature “Proceedings of MEMS 97, p 169”. According to this stereolithography, planar form precision of 0.62 &mgr;m and resolution in the lamination direction of 2.2 &mgr;m can be attained by utilizing a principle of two-photon absorption phenomenon.
(Conventional example 2)
FIG. 27
shows the conventional example namely selective laser sintering. In the “selective laser sintering”, powder
104
is laid to form a thin layer (powder layer)
104
a
a laser beam
102
is applied to the powder layer
104
a
to form a thin layer of a desired form, and by repeating this process a three dimensional sintered product composed of a plurality of powder layers
104
a
is formed. According to the selective laser sintering, a three dimensional product not only of resin but also of ceramics and metals can be formed.
(Conventional example 3)
FIG. 28
shows a manufacturing apparatus used in the conventional example 3, namely the sheet lamination disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 6-190929. In this manufacturing apparatus, when a plastic film
111
is supplied from a film feeding device
110
, an adhesive coating device
120
coats photo-curable adhesive
121
evenly on the underside of the plastic film
111
to form an adhesive layer, a negative pattern exposure device
130
exposes an area of the adhesive layer excepting the area corresponding to the cross sectional form of a micro-structure to form the hardened portion and the uncured portion, this is pressed down by a press roller
141
of a photo-curing laminating device
140
, the uncured portion is hardened by the light from a light source
142
and bonded to the lower plastic film
111
. The rear end of the plastic film
111
is cut by a laser beam from a CO
2
laser source
151
, and the border of the unnecessary area of the uppermost plastic film
111
is removed by the laser. This process is repeated layer by layer to form a micro-structure. In
FIG. 28
,
160
represents a work device for controlling this apparatus. According to the sheet lamination, a micro-structure comprising plastic sheets is obtained.
(Conventional example 4)
FIG. 29
shows the conventional example 4, namely a manufacturing method using thin films as starting material disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 8-127073. In this manufacturing method, as shown in the drawing (a), a photosensitive resin film
171
is formed on a substrate
170
, and two processes, namely a process for forming an exposed portion
171
a
by exposing on an area of a desired pattern as shown in the drawing (b) and a process for forming an intermediate film
172
which prevents the resin film
171
from being mixed and prevents exposure of the lower layer, are repeated to form a multi-layer structure composed of the resin film
171
and intermediate film
172
as shown in the drawing (c), and then the exposed portion
171
a
shown in the drawings (b) and (c) is selectively removed by dipping it in a resin developing solution and thus a three dimensional micro-structure as shown in drawing (d) is obtained. According to this manufacturing method, the resolution in the lamination direction of &mgr;m order can be attained because spin coating is applied to the resin film
171
and intermediate film
172
.
However, according to the conventional example 1, namely stereolithography, this method is disadvantageous in that the resolution in the lamination direction of 1 &mgr;m or smaller and the film thickness precision of 0.1 &mgr;m or smaller, which is required to manufacture micro-gears and micro-optical parts, cannot be attained. In detail, because an incident light applied perpendicularly onto the layer for hardening the starting material (photosensitive resin) is used, the incident light penetrates perpendicularly from the surface through the layer with decreasing intensity due to absorption, and the intensity decreases to the level of the threshold value required for curing. The layer thickness corresponding to the threshold value is the thickness of one layer, but because of dispersion of the incident light intensity, variation of the incident light intensity with time, and dispersion of the absorption coefficient of the starting material, it is difficult to obtain high resolution.
In addition, full cure process is applied to harden completely after forming because photosensitive resin is used, in the full cure process the product shrinks 1% through several %, the shrinkage is disadvantageous and causes significant deterioration of the precision.
Furthermore, this method can be applied to only micro-structures made of relatively soft photosensitive resin, therefore, if a micro-structure is required to be made of a hard material such as a metal, the only way to manufacture the product is the molding by electroforming or injection molding using a mold of this resin. The requirement of such process is disadvantageous.
According to the conventional example 2, namely the selective laser sintering, the resolution in the lamination direction is poor because an incident light applied perpendicularly onto the layer is used as in the conventional example 1, and the shrinkage in full cure process causes deterioration of precision, and furthermore the method is disadvantageous in that a transfer process is required to manufacture micro-structures made of a hard material such as metal.
According to the conventional example 3, namely the sheet lamination, the sheet thickness is the determinant fact

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