M. Egashira et al., POWDER PARTICLE MANIPULATION AND ASSEMBLAGE USING MICROPROBE, Journal of intelligent material systems and structures, 7(3), 1996, pp. 267-271
Powder particle manipulation and welding techniques using a microprobe
have been developed for use of microassembling. These techniques were
applied to fabrication of microstructures by assembling powder partic
les. For the microprobe, a needle with a tip of 2 mu m in diameter was
prepared. Au and Ni alloy powder particles of about 60-100 mu m diame
ter were used for the manipulation and welding experiments. The experi
ments showed that Au powder particles can be easily picked up, moved t
o a predetermined point and deposited at the point by controlling the
voltage between the W microprobe and the substrate. Furthermore, the p
owder particle can be welded into the substrate or other powder partic
les on the substrate by glow discharge between the tip of the probe an
d the substrate. By utilization of the powder particle manipulation an
d welding, microstructures composed of Au and Ni alloy powder particle
s were fabricated. It was demonstrated that the microprobe technique i
s very useful for the fabrication of micromachines and microdevices. A
lso, the technique is thought to be useful for the creation of intelli
gent materials.