Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling Techniques for the Manufacturing of Silicon, Polymer, Metal and Ceramic Microdevices

Abstract

Rapid prototyping techniques allow the rapid and flexible generation of single design models as well as fabrication tools for the replication of small scale series, at present mainly in the macroworld. A current internet search using one of the established search engines reveals the following typical results: –  445000 links for “rapid prototyping” –  55000 links for “rapid” and “prototyping” and “micro” –  5100 links for “micro” and “stereolithography” –  70 links for “microstereolithography” –  50 links for “rapid” and “nano” and “prototyping” –  links for “nanostereolithography”.