Fabrication of true 3D microstructures in glass/ceramic materials by pulsed UV laser volumetric exposure techniques

A pulsed UV laser based technique has been developed which permits the transfer, by direct-write exposure, of 3D image into a photosensitive glass/ceramic material. The exposed latent image volume is developed via temperature programmed bake process and then etched away using HF in solution. The height of the 3D microstructures is controlled by the initial laser wavelength used during the exposure and the time duration of the etching cycle. Using this technique we have fabricated large arrays of microstructures which have applications to microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems and optoelectronics. The resulting master copy can be used either as is or by use standard injection modeling techniques converted into a metallic or plastic copies. We present these results and others which have specific applications to miniature 1Kg class satellites - nanosatellites.