A New Process and Technology for Rapid Prototyping of A μ-Micro Motor

A new process and technology of rapid prototyping for a μ-micro motor is presented as a nontraditional machining and an advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) to be realized by using masks, including the operation principle of the motor, structure design, technique, driven circuit, and quality examination with Raman spectrum. The μ-micro motor is fabricated by the micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) process, the structure design must be considered to fabricate or assembly the parts during machining the motor in the meantime. The research proved that integration of IC (integrated circuit) process and MEMS using masks is effective in obtaining the rapid prototyping manufacturing of the μ-micro motor. With the mature technique to fabricate the motor, there are advantages to produce the motor in short time and with lower cost than before. The motor is a common power source of micro machines in military and civilian applications, for example, applied to micro robot, micro bio medicine, and micro machine. The size of the motor is 190 μm in maximum diameter by 125 μm in height that is bulk machined in array with the number of hundreds of micro motors on a substrate. © 2009 Tsinghua University Press.