Direct-Write Dewetting of High Melting Temperature Metals on Flexible Substrates

Abstract

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are pervasive in modern technology due to their reliability, small foot print, and versatility of function. While many of the manufacturing techniques for MEMS devices stem from integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing, the wide range of designs necessitates more varied processing techniques. Here, new details of a scanning laser based direct-write dewetting technique are presented as an expansion of previous demonstrations. For the first time, the ability to pattern a high melting temperature and high reflectance metallic thin films of Ni and Ag, respectively, on polymer substrates is reported. Novel methods for reducing the power necessary for processing highly reflective films are demonstrated by depositing very thin films of high near-infrared absorbance.

Laser-Assisted Tailored Patterning of Au Nanoparticles over an Inch-Sized Area: Implications for Large Aperture Meta-optics

“…Laser-induced dewetting of metal films has been actively investigated in the past. − The main body of previous studies is aimed at metal film laser-texturing for plasmonic coloring or focused on controlling a different virtue of nanoparticles (e.g., spectral transmission or reflection) rather than the fill-factor that is the relevant metric for the etching mask application of the present study. Importantly, most of them utilized pulsed lasers to control dewetting, where the effects of accumulated energy on nanoparticle formation were mostly investigated.…”

Horizontal Oxidation Diffusion Behavior of MEMS-Based Tungsten-Rhenium Thin Film Thermocouples

“…Compared to conventional wire and foil thermocouples, thin film thermocouple (TFTC) by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process has the advantages of fast response speed and small size due to its low thermal mass and process [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, the thin films deposited by the MEMS process are exactly uniform without the problem of surface particles, which is more conducive to the production of large areas of films [ 10 ]. TFTCs were first proposed by Hackenann, a German researcher, during World War II to measure the temperature changes in the chamber wall of a gun [ 11 ].…”