Microstereolithography

Microstereolithography is a 3D microfabrication technology that is fundamentally different from the techniques commonly used in cleanroom environment for the manufacturing of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) components. Most microfabrication techniques evolved from the microelectronics industry and often use silicon wafers as substrate or carrier material, thin films of metals deposited by evaporation or sputtering, thin layers of polymers deposited by spin coating and patterned by photolithography, and chemical and plasma etching to generate various shapes. Microstereolithography is also a microfabrication technique, but it is related to rapid prototyping technologies, and more precisely to stereolithography, a technique patented in 1986, allowing the fabrication of 3D components by layer-by-layer curing of a photopolymerizable resin with an ultraviolet (UV) laser. Microstereolithography is based on a manufacturing principle very similar to the one of stereolithography, but implements process improvements that result in a far better resolution.