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This paper describes a novel wafer bonding technique using microwave heating of parylene intermediate layers. The bonding is achieved by parylene deposition and thermal lamination using microwave heating. Variable frequency microwave heating provides uniform, selective and rapid heating for parylene intermediate layers. The advantages of this bonding technique include short bonding time, low bonding temperature, relatively high bonding strength, less void generation and low thermal stress. In addition, the intermediate layer material, parylene, is chemically stable and biocompatible. This bonding technique can be used for structured wafers also because parylene provides a conformal coating. Therefore, this is a very attractive bonding tool for many MEMS devices. The bonding strength and uniformity were evaluated using diverse tools. Fracture mechanisms and the effects of bonding parameters and an adhesion promoter were also investigated. The bonding with a structured wafer was also successfully demonstrated.

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Suppressing Li dendrite growth has gained research interest due to the high theoretical capacity of Li metal anodes. Traditional Celgard membranes which are currently used in Li metal batteries fall short in achieving uniform Li flux at the electrode/electrolyte interface due to their inherent irregular pore sizes. Here, the use of an ultrathin (≈1.2 nm) carbon nanomembrane (CNM) which contains sub‐nanometer sized pores as an interlayer to regulate the mass transport of Li‐ions is demonstrated. Symmetrical cell analysis reveals that the cell with CNM interlayer cycles over 2x longer than the control experiment without the formation of Li dendrites. Further investigation on the Li plating morphology on Cu foil reveals highly dense deposits of Li metal using a standard carbonate electrolyte. A smoothed‐particle hydrodynamics simulation of the mass transport at the anode–electrolyte interface elucidates the effect of the CNM in promoting the formation of highly dense Li deposits and inhibiting the formation of dendrites. A lithium metal battery fabricated using the LiFePO4 cathode exhibits a stable, flat voltage profile with low polarization for over 300 cycles indicating the effect of regulated mass transport.

This paper describes casting-based microfabrication of metal microstructures and nanostructures. The metal was cast into flexible silicone molds which were themselves cast from microfabricated silicon templates. Microcasting is demonstrated in two metal alloys of melting temperature 70 °C or 138 °C. Many structures were successfully cast into the metal with excellent replication fidelity, including ridges with periodicity 400 nm and holes or pillars with diameter in the range 10–100 µm and aspect ratio up to 2:1. The flexibility of the silicone mold permits casting of curved surfaces, which we demonstrate by fabricating a cylindrical metal roller of diameter 8 mm covered with microstructures. The metal microstructures can be in turn used as a reusable molding tool.