Micromachining
The Nuclear Microscopy Group at the National University
of Singapore, using an OM2000 endstation, have shown
that a focused high energy (eg 2MeV) proton beam is
ideally suited to precise 3 dimensional micromachining.
By scanning the proton beam over a resist material in
a predetermined pattern, specific shapes can be produced
in the resist when the resist is treated with a suitable
developer.
The advantages of this technique (Proton Micromachining,
or Deep Ion Beam Lithography - DIBL), is that the process
is truly three dimensional: The precise depth of
machining is determined by the energy of the proton
beam, eg a 2 MeV proton beam will expose to 60 microns
depth in PMMA. High aspect ratios approaching 100,
and submicron structures have been achieved.
The potential of this technique in the new fields
of MEMS (Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems) and
micromachining is extremely high.
The pictures below show typical examples of
the micromachining technique.
All of these examples have been made
at the National University of Singapore
Scanning Proton Microprobe Facility
using an Oxford Microbeams
OM2000 endstage.
