Experimental investigation on the thermal length expansion of direct laser writing material

Abstract

AbstractThe interest in micro applications increases in recent years due to new methods of fabrication. One fabrication process is direct laser writing, which can fabricate high‐precision structures in the micrometer range. The material properties of the micro structures are related to the writing parameters, such as laser power, scan speed, distance between written lines and writing direction. This work presents investigations of the thermal length expansion coefficients of a laser‐written polymer in regard to laser power. To this end cantilever structures are fabricated. The small cantilevers are heated and their length expansions observed using a microscope. Images of the cantilevers at different temperatures are taken and by image post processing, the change in length and their coefficients of thermal expansion is determined.