Surface roughness and geometrical characterization of ultra-thick micro moulds for ceramic micro fabrication using soft lithography

Abstract

Ceramic micro fabrication using soft lithography is a well-known technique used to pattern high-aspect-ratio microstructures. The quality of the pattern highly relies on the quality of the moulds. This paper describes the surface roughness and geometrical characterization of soft lithography technique for the fabrication of ceramic micro components. Effects of patterning materials and methods on the produced geometry, repeatability and surface roughness were studied and a comparative study was performed for the optimization process. UV lithography of BPR100 and SU-8 and deep reactive ion etching are the methods for fabricating the master mould. In addition, polydimethylsiloxane and Dragon Skin elastomeric have been used in the fabrication of the soft moulds. Mould geometry was inspected using SEM images while surface roughness was measured using stereo imaging. The results show that the maximum obtained thicknesses are 1,000, 250 and 500 μm for SU-8, BPR100 and DRIE moulds. In addition, their surface roughness values are higher than the SU-8. On the other hand, Dragon Skin shows demoulding problems despite it has smoother surface than PDMS mould.