Fabrication of Micro-Compliant Mechanisms Using Micro-Stereolithography

Abstract

Compliant mechanisms provide friction-less and backlash-free smooth motion as it is obtained through deformation of flexible members. Micro-compliant mechanisms are widely used in many applications such as MEMS, micro-gripper, and tweezers for biological applications, precise motion of focusing lens. In the literature, various fabrication techniques such as wire EDM, micro-milling, Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI)-based lithography, and etching processes are used to fabricate micro-compliant mechanisms. These processes suffer from limitation that high speed, high resolution, and high aspect ratio (required for high performance mechanisms) all cannot be there in a single process. 3D micro-printing has the potential to meet these stringent requirements in a cost-effective manner. We demonstrate in this paper, development of high aspect ratio micro-mechanisms via 3D micro-printing based on indigenous technology. This 3D micro-printer has been developed based on micro-stereolithography technology with patented scanning. We report comparable short printing time, resolution, and ultra-high aspect ratios obtained using the proposed method.