Powder blasting as a three-dimensional microstructuring technology for MEMS applications

We present powder blasting as a new technology for the realization of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The technique is base don the erosion of a masked substrate by a high velocity powder beam. We study the erosion rate of the process using glass wafers and introduce oblique powder blasting, where we vary the angle of incidence of the powder beam with respect tot the target surface. The oblique impact gives rise to particular side walls effects of micro patterned hole structures. We have applied this microfabrication method for various MEMS applications, like the realization of glass accelerometer beams, biological microsystems for the culture and characterization of living cells and ferrite-based miniaturized transformers for ultra- small power applications.