Martins D.R., Mansano R., Verdonck P., Salvadori M.C.
University of Sao Paulo, BR
Most microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices have been based on silicon. This is due to the technological know-how accumulated on the manipulation, machining and manufacturing of silicon. However, the silicon properties are poor, especially when compared with diamond. Therefore, fabrication of diamond microstructures is a promising field for MEMS. This work was done in order to investigate the possibility of fabricating diamond microstructures. Our technique can be describe as follows: in the first step, the silicon mold is microfabricated using well established process technology, in the second step a diamond film is grown on it and, finally, the silicon substrate is wet etched. In this way we obtained diamond replicas of silicon molds, as the final devices. An Atomic Force Microscope performed the micrometric and nanometric characterization of the replicas and the substrates, defining limits for the morphology mold reproduction in the diamond replicas. The diamond replica roughness introduces an uncertainty in the measured heights, which implies that the reproducibility of diamond replicas morphology depends on the substrate preparation. With this limitation, we observed that diamond replicas can reproduce microstructures, but it has serious limitations for the nanometric scale.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 3, Technical Proceedings of the 2003 Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 3
Published: February 23, 2003
Pages: 21 - 24
Industry sector: Personal & Home Care, Food & Agriculture
Topic: Personal & Home Care, Food & Agriculture
ISBN: 0-9728422-2-5