Innovative And Cost-Effective Microfabrication Of Nanoceramic Components
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Innovative And Cost-Effective Microfabrication Of Nanoceramic Components Balakrishnan G. Nair Ceramatec Inc. Salt Lake City, UT 84119 ABSTRACT An innovative and cost-effective processing technique has been developed at Ceramatec Inc for the microfabrication of ceramic components requiring very high dimensional tolerance. The materials system is a proprietary nanophase composition called CERCANAM (CERamatec CAstable NAno Material). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that CERCANAM components can be fabricated with dimensional tolerance as high as ± 2 µm for surface features on the die that have dimensions about 1 mm. The process can also be modified to fabricate nanoporous ceramic components with very high surface areas. Components with retained surface areas as high as 67-82% of the starting powder were fabricated. The fabrication process does not involve a high-temperature sintering step, which eliminates the loss of surface area from high temperature sintering. It is anticipated that microcomponents fabricated with specific microstructures and properties will have applications in the optical fiber industry as interconnects, in the electronic packaging industry and the chemical industry. INTRODUCTION Conventional micro-machining techniques to form high-precision components (e.g. wet and dry etching) are very slow and expensive processes, and often do not meet the desired production rates and cost criteria required for bulk production of components. Further, most of these processes are specific for silicon, which has a relatively low fracture-toughness (0.7-0.8 MPa.m1/2)1 and is subject to severe corrosion in the high-temperature oxidizing conditions2 typical of industrial chemical processes employing microchannel devices. Ceramic materials have excellent corrosion and mechanical properties that make them very attractive for hightemperature applications. However, most current processing techniques for micro-devices made of ceramics are even more expensive than silicon technology. Most of these processes require sintering/pyrolysis at high-temperature that result in at least 10-20% shrinkage. 3 Such shrinkage is very difficult to accurately model, and therefore the component dimensions are difficult to control to required tolerances. MATERIALS AND METHODS Our process involves a novel casting technique to form net-shape components made of a reaction-bonded nano-ceramic material, which we will refer to henceforth as CERCANAM (for CERamatec CAstable NAno Material). This material was developed as a result of an internally funded research project at Ceramatec, Inc, in Salt Lake City, UT. The specific composition of CERCANAM and the processing technique are considered proprietary and are not relevant to the technical content of this manuscript. The idea of using reaction-bonded nano-ceramics like CERCANAM to fabricate micro components is novel.
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Firing temperatures to form the finished component are usually as low as 200-600oC, although it can be as high as 1000oC if necessary. These temperatures are well below
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