New amorphous alloys as micromaterials and the processing technologies

Abstract

Microformability of new amorphous alloys in the supercooled liquid state and microforming techniques for the materials are shown. In the supercooled liquid state, the materials reveal perfect Newtonian viscous flow characteristics and furthermore exhibit an excellent property of microformability on a submicron scale. Microforming techniques are shown as follows; microextrusion with micro-dies made of photochemically machinable glass and made of laser-micromachined polyimide, submicron imprinting with silicon die fabricated by EB lithography and etching, microforging of microgear of 10 /spl mu/m in module with microdie fabricated by UV-LIGA process. As a result, the materials are expected to become some of the most useful materials for fabricating MEMS.