Method and apparatus for maintaining parallelism of layers and/or achieving desired thicknesses of layers during the electrochemical fabrication of structures

• Main Authors: LOCKARD MICHAEL S, COHEN ADAM L, FRODIS URI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 15.09.2009
• Subjects: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY; ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OFTHREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVEAGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING,STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING; APPARATUS THEREFOR; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROFORMING; ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PROCESSES; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; MICROSTRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY; ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PROCESSES FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; PROCESSES FOR THE ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PRODUCTIONOF COATINGS; PROCESSES OR APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTUREOR TREATMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURAL DEVICES OR SYSTEMS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; TRANSPORTING; USE OF INORGANIC OR NON-MACROMOLECULAR ORGANIC SUBSTANCES ASCOMPOUNDING INGREDIENTS

Some embodiments of the present invention provide processes and apparatus for electrochemically fabricating multilayer structures (e.g. mesoscale or microscale structures) with improved endpoint detection and parallelism maintenance for materials (e.g. layers) that are planarized during the electrochemical fabrication process. Some methods involve the use of a fixture during planarization that ensures that planarized planes of material are parallel to other deposited planes within a given tolerance. Some methods involve the use of an endpoint detection fixture that ensures precise heights of deposited materials relative to an initial surface of a substrate, relative to a first deposited layer, or relative to some other layer formed during the fabrication process. In some embodiments planarization may occur via lapping while other embodiments may use a diamond fly cutting machine.