Fabrication of varying depth profile polydimethylsiloxane micro-cantilever beam

Abstract

Micro-cantilevers have rapidly developed in to a new sensor technology because of their features like small size, fast response and high sensitivity. Conventional methods for fabricating microcantilevers are centred either etching in glass and silicon or using lithography. The major problem is that the traditional method to fabricate microcantilevers are not only expensive but also time consuming. It needs infrastructure and well monitored clean room environment which demands large initial investment. This paper describes an economical method of sequential micro-milling and micro-moulding process. In this method replica of micro-cantilever beam is made on a Brass substrate using micromilling method and then micro-cantilever is produced by using PDMS as moulding material followed by micro-moulding process.