Method and apparatus for maintaining parallelism of layers and/or achieving desired thicknesses of layers during the electrochemical fabrication of structures
First Claim
1. A fabrication process for forming a multi-layer three-dimensional structure, comprising:
- (a) forming and adhering a layer of material to a previously formed layer and/or to a substrate, wherein the layer comprises a desired pattern of at least one material, wherein one or more contact pads exist on the substrate or on a previously formed layer;
(b) subjecting the at least one material to a planarization operation;
(c) locating a measurement probe in contact with the one or more contact pads and in contact with material that was subject to the planarization operation and extracting data from the fixture concerning a measured height of planarized material at at least one point relative to a desired reference point or plane;
(d) comparing the measured height of material to a desired height for the material;
(e) if the measured and desired heights are not within a desired tolerance, repeating operations (b)-(d) until the measured and desired heights are within the desired tolerance;
(f) repeating the forming and adhering of operation (a) one or more times to form the three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered layers.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Some embodiments of the present invention provide processes and apparatus for electrochemically fabricating multilayer structures (e.g. mesoscale or microscale structures) with improved endpoint detection and parallelism maintenance for materials (e.g. layers) that are planarized during the electrochemical fabrication process. Some methods involve the use of a fixture during planarization that ensures that planarized planes of material are parallel to other deposited planes within a given tolerance. Some methods involve the use of an endpoint detection fixture that ensures precise heights of deposited materials relative to an initial surface of a substrate, relative to a first deposited layer, or relative to some other layer formed during the fabrication process. In some embodiments planarization may occur via lapping while other embodiments may use a diamond fly cutting machine.
42 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A fabrication process for forming a multi-layer three-dimensional structure, comprising:
-
(a) forming and adhering a layer of material to a previously formed layer and/or to a substrate, wherein the layer comprises a desired pattern of at least one material, wherein one or more contact pads exist on the substrate or on a previously formed layer; (b) subjecting the at least one material to a planarization operation; (c) locating a measurement probe in contact with the one or more contact pads and in contact with material that was subject to the planarization operation and extracting data from the fixture concerning a measured height of planarized material at at least one point relative to a desired reference point or plane; (d) comparing the measured height of material to a desired height for the material; (e) if the measured and desired heights are not within a desired tolerance, repeating operations (b)-(d) until the measured and desired heights are within the desired tolerance; (f) repeating the forming and adhering of operation (a) one or more times to form the three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered layers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A fabrication process for forming a multi-layer three-dimensional structure, comprising:
-
(a) forming and adhering a layer of material to a previously formed layer and/or to a substrate, wherein the layer comprises a desired pattern of at least one material, wherein one or more contact pads exist on the substrate or on a previously formed layer; (b) subjecting the at least one material to a planarization operation; (c) subjecting the at least one material to inspection to determine at least two of the height of the deposition relative to a desired reference, the planarity of the deposition, and the orientation of the deposition relative to a desired reference; (d) repeating the forming and adhering of operation (a) one or more times to form the three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered layers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification