Development of Micro-stereolithography Technology using Metal Powder

금속 분말을 이용한 마이크로 광 조형 기술의 개발

Micro-stereolithography is a newly proposed technology as a means that can fabricate a 3D micro structure of free form. It makes a 3D micro-structure by dividing the shape into many slices of relevant thickness along horizontal surfaces, hardening each layer of slice with a focused laser beam, and stacking them up to a desired shape. However, we do not anticipate the electric conductivity of the final product at the existing micro-stereolithography. The reason is that this technology uses polymer to make the product. Thus the new suspension which was mixed conventional photopolymer with metal powder was developed in this study. The developed suspensions were based on SL5180 which is commercialized resin and IMS03 that is made in our laboratory. And Triton X-100 was added at the suspension for getting the scattering effect and stabilizing effect. The layer recoating device was developed to be flat the mixed high viscosity suspension. A 3D micro structure was manufactured by using recoating system and micro-stereolithography system. The fabricated product was sintered to get the electric conductivity. After sintering, a pure copper product was made. In this study, new process was developed by making metal micro structure having an electric conductivity. This technology broadened the realm of the micro-stereolithography technology. And it will be applied to make the 3D micro structure of free form which has a high hardness and an electric conductivity in the near future.