Microcutting and forming of thin aluminium foils for MEMS

This paper presents a simple procedure for simultaneous cutting and forming of thin Al foils for use in MEMS components. The procedure makes use of scaled down macroscopic sheet forming and cutting techniques by using a hydraulic press, a soft counterpart, and a microfabricated stamp tool. The relation between applied pressure and forming and cutting features has been characterized for a specific set of stamp geometries and boundary conditions.

The results show that 10 μm forming features can be transferred to 4 m thick Al foils, which simultaneously can be cut into products by 25 μm wide cut lines. Using the procedure presented in this paper scaled to full 4-8 in. silicon wafer stamp tools, a fast and adequate method for high volume production of MEMS components is obtained. © 2011 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.