• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.267-272
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• 2002

The production of micro components is one of the leading technologies in the fields of information and communiation, medical and biotechnology, and micro sensor and micro actuator system. Microfabrication (micromachining) techniques such as X-ray lithography, electroforming, micromolding and excimer laser ablation are used for the production of micro components out of silicon, polymer and a limited number of pure metals or binary alloys. However, since the first development of microfabrication technologies there have been demands for the cost-effective replication in large scale series as well as the extended range of available material. One such promising process is micro powder injection molding (PIM), which inherits the advantages of the conventional PIM technology, such as low production cost, shape complexity, applicability to many materials, applicability to many materials, and good tolerance. This paper reports on a fundamental investigation of the application of W-Cu powder to micro metal injection molding (MIM), especially in view of achieving a good filling and a safe removal of a micro mold conducted in the experiment. It is absolutely legitimate and meaningful, at the present state of the technique, to continue developing the micro MIM towards production processes for micro components.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2002

This paper presents high performance MEMS passives using fully CMOS compatible, monolithically integrable 3-D RF MEMS processes for RF and microwave applications. The 3-D RF MEMS technology has been developed and investigated as a viable technological option, which can break the limit of the conventional IC technology. We have demonstrated the versatility of the technology by fabricating various 3-D thick-metal microstructures for RF and microwave applications, such as spiral/solenoid inductors, transformers, and transmission lines, with a vertical dimension of up to $100{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$. To the best of our knowledge, we report that we are the first to construct a fully integrated VCO with MEMS inductors, which has achieved a low phase noise of -124 dBc/Hz at 300 kHz offset from a center frequency of 1 GHz.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.269-275
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• 2014

Conventional machining technologies such as a milling process have limitations in accuracy to fabricate microstructures. Deep X-ray lithography using the synchrotron radiation is a promising micromachining process with an excellent accuracy, whereas there are difficulties in the fabrication of multi-layered structures. Therefore, it is mainly used for fabricating simple mono-layered microstructures with a high aspect ratio. In this study, a novel technology for fabricating multi-layered microstructures is proposed by combining two processes. In advance, an X-ray resist material is cut and machined into various shapes and heights by the micro milling process. Subsequent X-ray irradiation process facilitates the fabrication of multi-layered microstructures. The proposed technology can overcome the limitation of the pattern accuracy in conventional milling process and the difficulty of the multi-layered machining in x-ray process. The usefulness of the proposed technology is demonstrated in this study by applying the technique in the realization of various multi-layered microstructures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.423-427
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• 2017

In this paper, an anchor design that improves bonding strength uniformity in the silicon-on-glass (SOG) process is presented. The SOG process is widely used in conjunction with electrode-patterned glass substrates as a standard fabrication process for forming high-aspect-ratio movable silicon microstructures in various types of sensors, including inertial and resonant sensors. In the proposed anchor design, a trench separates the silicon-bonded area and the electrode contact area to prevent irregular bonding caused by the protrusion of the electrode layer beyond the glass surface. This technique can be conveniently adopted to almost all devices fabricated by the SOG process without the necessity of additional processes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.408-413
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• 1996

A self-diagnostic, air-damped, piezoresitive, cantilever-beam microaccelerometer has been designed, fabricated and tested for applications to automotive electronic airbag systems. A skew-symmetric proof-mass has been designed for self-diagnostic capability and zero transverse sensitivity. Two kinds of multi-step anisotropic etching processes are developed for beam thickness control and fillet-rounding formation, UV-curing paste has been used for sillicon-to-glass bounding. The resonant frequency of 2.07kHz has been measured from the fabricated devices. The sensitivity of 195 $\mu{V}$/g is obtained with a nonlinearity of 4% over $\pm$50g ranges. Flat amplitude response and frequency-proportional phase response have been obserbed, It is shown that the design and fabricaiton methods developed in the present study yield a simple, practical and effective mean for improving the performance, reliability as well as the reproducibility of the accelerometers.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2004

This paper presents a novel z-axis accelerometer with perfectly aligned vertical combs fabricated using the extended sacrificial bulk micromachining (extended SBM) process. The z-axis accelerometer is fabricated using only one (111) SOI wafer and two photo masks without wafer bonding or CMP processes as used by other research efforts that involve vertical combs. In our process, there is no misalignment in lateral gap between the upper and lower comb electrodes, because all critical dimensions including lateral gaps are defined using only one mask. The fabricated accelerometer has the structure thickness of $30{\mu}m$, the vertical offset of $12{\mu}m$, and lateral gap between electrodes of $4{\mu}m$. Torsional springs and asymmetric proof mass produce a vertical displacement when an external z-axis acceleration is applied, and capacitance change due to the vertical displacement of the comb is detected by charge-to-voltage converter. The signal-to-noise ratio of the modulated and demodulated output signal is 80 dB and 76.5 dB, respectively. The noise equivalent input acceleration resolution of the modulated and demodulated output signal is calculated to be $500{\mu}g$ and $748{\mu}g$. The scale factor and linearity of the accelerometer are measured to be 1.1 mV/g and 1.18% FSO, respectively.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.277-283
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• 2006

We presented that fabrication process and characteristics of 3 axes flexible tactile sensor available for normal and shear force fabricated using Si micromachining and packaging technologies. The fabrication processes for 3 axes flexible tactile sensor were classified in the fabrication of sensor chips and their packaging on the flexible PCB. The variation rate of resistance was about 2.1 %/N and 0.5 %/N in applying normal and shear force, respectively. The flexibility of fabricated 3 axes flexible tactile sensor array was good enough to place on the finger-tip.