Abstract
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are of high interest for recent electronic applications. Their applications range from medicine to measurement technology, from microfluidics to the Internet of Things (IoT). In many cases, MEMS elements serve as sensors or actuators, e.g., in recent mobile phones, but also in future autonomously driving cars. Most MEMS elements are based on silicon, which is not deformed plastically under a load, as opposed to metals. While highly sophisticated solutions were already found for diverse MEMS sensors, actuators, and other elements, MEMS fabrication is less standardized than pure microelectronics, which sometimes blocks new ideas. One of the possibilities to overcome this problem may be the 3D printing approach. While most 3D printing technologies do not offer sufficient resolution for MEMS production, and many of the common 3D printing materials cannot be used for this application, there are still niches in which the 3D printing of MEMS enables producing new structures and thus creating elements for new applications, or the faster and less expensive production of common systems. Here, we give an overview of the most recent developments and applications in 3D printing of MEMS.
Highlights
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized devices combining electric and mechanical functions
Typical polymers used in the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polyamide (“nylon”), or polycarbonate [10], while other technologies allow for printing different polymers
Printed due to the relatively large minimum feature size of 3D printing in the range of 50–500 μm. They compared stereolithography, micro-stereolithography, PolyJet, selective laser sintering, fused deposition modeling, and two less known technologies and suggested concentrating on enhancing the printing resolution toward a range of 1–10 μm to enable the utilization of 3D printing for a broader range of possible MEMS devices [36]
Summary
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized devices combining electric and mechanical functions. The disadvantages of most 3D printing technologies are relatively low mechanical properties, as compared to objects prepared from other technologies [11], which is why sometimes combinations of 3D printed parts with differently prepared objects are suggested [12,13]. As visible, both aforementioned technologies have emerged during the last decades (Figure 1a). IP-Dip pPhhoototroerseisstist SUPI8hPop-thDooriteposripsethssiosttoresist PhSoUto8repsihstostoresist [26] [24] Another problem is the well-known thermal shrinkage occurring in polymer-based 3D printing processes [30,31] as well as after sintering green ceramics or during printing metal objects [32,33]. The most important 3D printing techniques are explained in brief
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