Electrochemical Fabrication Methods Incorporating Dielectric Materials and/or Using Dielectric Substrates

• Main Authors: Le, Qui T, McPherson, Dale S, Cohen, Adam L, Kim, Kieun, Lockard, Michael S, Smalley, Dennis R, Zhang, Gang, Frodis, Uri
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 12.11.2020
• Subjects: APPARATUS THEREFOR; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; CHEMISTRY; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATIONOR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY IONIMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; ELECTROFORMING; ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PROCESSES; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION INGENERAL; METALLURGY; MICROSTRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PROCESSES FOR THE ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PRODUCTIONOF COATINGS; PROCESSES OR APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTUREOR TREATMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURAL DEVICES OR SYSTEMS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THESURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; TRANSPORTING

Some embodiments are directed to techniques for building single layer or multi-layer structures on dielectric or partially dielectric substrates. Certain embodiments deposit seed layer material directly onto substrate materials while others use an intervening adhesion layer material. Some embodiments use different seed layer and/or adhesion layer materials for sacrificial and structural conductive building materials. Some embodiments apply seed layer and/or adhesion layer materials in what are effectively selective manners while others apply the materials in blanket fashion. Some embodiments remove extraneous material via planarization operations while other embodiments remove the extraneous material via etching operations. Other embodiments are directed to the electrochemical fabrication of multilayer mesoscale or microscale structures which are formed using at least one conductive structural material, at least one conductive sacrificial material, and at least one dielectric material. In some embodiments the dielectric material is a UV-curable photopolymer.