Development of focused microsized particle-beam technology and its application to microfabrication

A new powder particle beam drawing apparatus is being developed in order to realize a solid free-form fabrication using a focused powder particle beam. The powder particle beam drawing apparatus was constructed of a powder particle injector, a powder particle beam gun, a beam deflector and focusing lenses. The powder particle injector supplies micro-sized powder particles of 0.1 to 100 micrometers gradually and continuously from a powder particle reservoir to a powder particle beam gun. The powder particle beam gun generates the beam of highly charged powder particles. The powder particles draws lines and figures on substrates through the beam deflector and focusing lenses. Preliminary experiments were carried out using carbon powder particles of 10 micrometers size. It was possible to focalize the beam size within 500 micrometers diameter and draw lines using the beam. These results suggests that the powder particle technology can be applied to fabrication processes of micro-electronics devices and micro-machines.