Fabrication of Embedded Microstructures Via Lamination of Thick Gel‐Casted Ceramic Layers

Abstract

This article describes a new approach to fabricate various embedded ceramic microstructures. Design geometries of the microstructures are replicated onto a soft reusable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold. Rapid consolidation of ceramic suspension on the molds using gel-casting technique produces structured ceramic layers. 85% aqueous glycerol solution has been identified as suitable adhesive agent to laminate the ceramic layers. Capability of the approach in fabricating embedded microstructures of 3-dimensional and aspect ratio as high as 20 and 50 has been demonstrated. Ceramic microthruster and Y-shaped microfluidic reactor are fabricated using this new approach to show its potential to construct various ceramic microdevices.

Recent progress in graphene based ceramic composites: a review

“…Another technique in PDC route involves the infiltration of PDC resin from solution into pre-existing fabricated ceramic green body, which was demonstrated by Cheah et al in 2013. 75 They first fabricated green bodies by gel casting the ceramic suspension on PDMS soft molds. These green bodies were then infiltrated with PDC resin (RD-212a) before sintering at 1200°C.…”

Cold gas microthruster

“…Firstly, the selection of materials is limited as most MEMS manufacturing techniques are designed around the usage of silicon or its derivatives. Although there are some studies that use ceramic as structural materials [25,26], this may not offer an obvious advantage for cold gas micropropulsion systems as they are not operating at high temperatures.…”

Fabrication and preliminary testing of hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN)-based ceramic microthruster for potential application of nanosatellites in constellation formation flying

“…The presence of irregularities in non-critical components of the thruster is within the tolerance limit. It is noteworthy that geometrical dimensions of the micronozzle have been upscaled by 15% from the design values to account for the expected shrinkage of 10-15% during the sintering process (Cheah and Chin 2013). After comparing the dimension of five (5) micronozzles before and after the sintering, the shrinkage is evaluated as 15% in average.…”