Mesoscale and Microscale Manufacturing Processes : Challenges for Materials , Fabrication and Metrology

Length scales for processes and materials are generally classified as nanoscale (< 100 nm), microscale (100 nm to 100 μm) and mesoscale (> 100 μm). The length can be an external dimension of a component, or the internal dimension of a material such as the crystalline grain size. A comprehensive summary of the recent state-of-the art for Micro Meso Mechanical Manufacturing (M) is given in the NSF workshop report [1]. Material properties play an important role for all of the manufacturing processes. The M report concludes that "understanding mechanics and physics of materials at the microscale is essential", and that "material can no longer be considered homogeneous when the process size dimensions approach the material grain size". The overview presented in this paper will focus on material properties, and in particular the structural properties of metals that will be used for the production of miniaturized mechanical components and assemblies. Many of the other papers in this conference will address the specific fabrication processes or metrology methods for manufacturing down to the microscale or nanoscale.