Additive manufacturing is revolutionizing the aerospace, transportation, energy, healthcare and various consumer product industries, replacing centralized manufacturing plants with more localized fabrication. 3D printing has become ubiquitous within these industries for prototyping and production. Currently, the smallest 3D printed features are on the order of a micron. While sufficient for some academic and industry applications, nanoscale features are required for the electronics industry and research endeavors. Optical lithography is still the workhorse for industrial nanofabrication utilizing large expensive commercial foundries. Here, an atomic scale 3D printer is presented with many of the features found in a complex semiconductor fabrication plant. This process is reproduced using three separate die with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which are bonded together to create an integrated 3D printer with the capability to print at the atomic scale. Due to the microscale size and surface areas of MEMS devices, they are extremely sensitive with rapid response times. These onboard MEMS devices replicate the functions of a thermal evaporator, patterning mask, mass sensor, heaters, temperature sensors and Van de Pauw setups. The assembled 3D printer dimensions are 3.8 mm x 2.5 mm x 1.8 mm (LxWxH) and it is therefore ideal for cryogenic environments. Quenched condensed thin film metals can be deposited using the atomic scale thermal evaporators in varying thicknesses up to approximately 50 nm. Replacing the atomic scale evaporators with microscale evaporators, the deposited film thickness can reach 3.5 microns. Evaporated films are monitored during and after the deposition with the embedded MEMS devices. While this particular 3D printing assembly is designed for research-scale investigations, the same technology could be extended to wafer-scale 3D printing with high resolution, rapid throughput, and reduced cost. / 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/44788 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| Creators | Lally, Richard W. |
| Contributors | Bishop, David J. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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