• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1194-1199
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• 2007

A unique fabrication method for a copper micromesh is proposed and demonstrated. A PDMS mold was fabricated using a microcasting process and then used as a flexible mold in copper electroplating. The fabricated copper micromesh was well formed and connected without any cracks within the entire mold area. The experimental results verified that the fabricated features of the copper micromesh accurately followed the shape of the microstructures of the PDMS mold. This unique fabrication method provides an easy yet precise means of producing three-dimensional metal microstructures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.714-719
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• 2004

Controlling the cure depth of the Fa1260T photopolymer enhances the quality of a microstructure and minimizes its size in microstereolithography. In this work, variation of cure depth of the Fa1260T photopolymer is investigated while the concentration of a photopolymerization inhibitor as a radical quencher was varied. The energy source inducing photopolymerization was a He-Cd laser and a motorized stage controled the laser beam path accurately. The effects of process variables such as laser beam power and scan speed on the cure depth were examined. Optimum conditions for the minimum cure depth were determined as laser power of 230 W and scan speed of 40-50 m/s at the concentration of the radical quencher of 5％. The minimum cure depth at the optimal condition was 14 m. The feasibility of the fabrication of microstructures such as a microcup, microfunnel, and microgrid of 100 m size is demonstrated using Super IH process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.71-74
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• 2003

The cell modeling homogenization method to derive the constitutive equation considering the microstructures of the fiber reinforced composites has been previously developed for composites with simple microstructures such as 2D plane composites and 3D rectangular shaped composites. Here, the method has been further extended for 3D circular braided composites, utilizing B-spline curves to properly describe the more complex geometry of 3D braided composites. For verification purposes, the method has been applied for orthotropic elastic properties of the 3D circular braided glass fiber reinforced composite, in particular for the tensile property. Prepregs of the specimen have been fabricated using the 3D braiding machine through RTM (resin transfer molding) with epoxy as a matrix. Experimentally measured uniaxial tensile properties agreed well with predicted values obtained fer two volume fractions.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2007

The two-photon stereolithography (TPS) process is a promising technique for the fabrication of real three-dimensional (3D) nano/micro-structures via application of a femto-second laser, In TPS, when a near-infrared ultrashort-pulsed laser is closely focused onto a confined volume of photocurable resin, only the local area at the center of the focus is cured. Therefore, real 3D microstructures with resolution under the diffraction limit can be fabricated through a layer-by-layer accumulative technique, This process provides opportunities to develop neo-conceptive nano/micro devices in IT/BT industries, However, a number of issues, including development of effective fabrication methods, highly sensitive and functional materials, and neo-conceptive devices using TPS, must be addressed for the realization of industrial application of TPS. In this review article, we discuss our efforts related to TPS: effective fabrication methods, diverse two-photon curable materials for high functional devices, and applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1365-1368
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• 2004

A scheme to control the laser power and the exposure time was studied to fabricate precise microstructures using the nanostereolithography (nSL) process. Some recent works have shown that a three-dimensional (3D) microstructure can be fabricated by the photopolymerizing process which is induced by two-photon absorption (TPA) with a femtosecond pulse laser. TPA provides the ability to confine photochemical and physical reactions within the order of laser wavelength, so neardiffraction limit features can be produced. In the nSL process, voxels are continuously generated to form a layer and then another layer is stacked in the normal direction of a plane to construct a 3D structure. Thus, fabrication of a voxel with low aspect ratio and small diameter is one of the most important parameters for fabricating precise 3D microstructures. In this work, the mechanism of a voxel formation is studied and a scheme on the control of laser power and exposure for minimizing aspect ratio of a voxel is proposed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.607-608
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• 2009

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1807-1810
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• 2008

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1805-1810
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• 2010

We present a simple, cost-effective, and fast fabrication process for three-dimensional (3D) microstructures; this process is based on multi-step electrochemical etching of metal foils which facilitates the mass production of 3D microstructures. Compared to electroplating, this process maintains uniform and well-controlled material properties of the microstructure. In the experimental study, we perform single-step electrochemical etching of aluminum foils for the fabrication of 2D cantilever arrays. In the single-step etching, the depth etch rate and bias etch rate are measured as $1.50{\pm}0.10 {\mu}m/min$ and $0.77{\pm}0.03 {\mu}m/min$, respectively. Using the results of single-step etching, we perform two-step electrochemical etching for 3D microstructures with probe tips on cantilevers. The errors in height and lateral fabrication in the case of the fabricated structures are $15.5{\pm}5.8% $ and $3.3{\pm}0.9%$, respectively; the surface roughness is $37.4{\pm}9.6nm$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2015

The diameter of a proton beam emanating from the MC-50 cyclotron is about 2-3 mm with Gaussian distribution. This widely irradiated proton beam is not suitable for semiconductor etching, precise positioning, and micromachining, which require a small spot. In this study, a beam cutting method using a microhole is proposed as an economical alternative. We produced a microhole with aspect ratio, average diameter, and thickness of 428, $21{\mu}m$, and 9 mm, respectively, for cutting the proton beam. By using this high-aspect-ratio microhole, we conducted machinability tests on microstructures with sizes of tens of ${\mu}m$. Additionally, the results of simulation using GEANT4 and those of the actual experiment were compared and analyzed. The outcome confirmed the possibility of implementing a micro process technology for the fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures of 20 micron units using the MC-50 cyclotron with the microhole.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.418-421
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• 2005

Three-dimensional (3D) microfabrication process using two-photon polymerization (TPP) is developed to fabricate the curved microstructures in a layer, which can be applied potentially to optical MEMS, nano/micro-devices, etc. A 3D curved structure can be expressed using the same height-contours that are defined by symbolic colors which consist of 14 colors. Then, the designed bitmap figure is transformed into a multi-exposure voxel matrix (MVM). In this work a multi-exposure voxel matrix scanning method is used to generate various heights of voxels according to each laser exposure time that is assigned to the symbolic colors. An objective lens with a numerical aperture of 1.25 is employed to enlarge the variation of a voxel height in the range of 1.2 to 6.4 um which can be controlled easily using the various exposure time. Though this work some 3D curved micro-shapes are fabricated directly to demonstrate the usefulness of the process without a laminating process that is generally required in a micro-stereolithography process.