Micro/Meso-scale Manufacturing

Abstract

The rapid emergence of miniaturized products today is demanding the production of components and assemblies in the submillimeter to a few-millimeter (i.e., micro/meso-scale) range with manufactured features perhaps in the range of a few to a few hundred microns. These fields include optics, electronics, medicine, biotechnology, communications, and avionics, to name a few. (Specific applications include microscale fuel cells; fluidic microchemical reactors requiring microscale pumps, valves, and mixing devices; biomedical implants, microholes for fiber optics; micronozzles for high-temperature jets; micromolds; and many others.) However, a critical assessment of the present status reveals that the prevalent manufacturing methods are MEMS-based and limited in terms of usable materials, feature geometry, and accuracy, while the manufacture of high-accuracy and -precision mechanical components is still being done by ultraprecision CNC machine tools. It is also apparent that there is an absence of a continuum of manufacturing capabilities that spans the whole nano-to-macro range. Arguably, the largest gap exists at the micro/meso-scale.