Electrochemical fabrication method including elastic joining of structures

摘要

Forming multi-layer 3D structures involving the joining of at least two structural elements, at least one of which is formed as a multi-layer 3D structure, wherein the joining occurs via one of: (1) elastic deformation and elastic recovery, (2) relative deformation of an initial portion of at least one element relative to another portion of the at least one element until the at least two elements are in a desired retention position after which the deformation is reduced or eliminated, or (3) moving a retention region of one element into the retention region of the other element, without deformation of either element, along a path including a loading region of the other element and wherein during normal use the first and second elements are configured relative to one another so that the loading region of the second element is not accessible to the retention region of the first element.

主权项

1. A method of fabricating a plurality of multi-element three-dimensional structures, comprising:
(A) forming a plurality of first elements of the plurality of multi-element three-dimensional structures from a plurality of successively formed layers, wherein each successive layer comprises at least two materials and is formed on and adhered to a previously formed layer, one of the at least two materials is a structural material and the other of the at least two materials is a sacrificial material, and wherein each successive layer defines a successive cross-section of the three-dimensional structure, and wherein the forming of each of the plurality of successive layers comprises:
(i) depositing a first of the at least two materials;(ii) depositing a second of the at least two materials;(iii) planarizing the first and second materials; and (B) after the forming of the plurality of successive layers, separating at least a portion of the sacrificial material from multiple layers of the structural material to reveal the plurality of first elements of the plurality of multi-element three-dimensional structures; (C) supplying a plurality of second elements of the plurality of multi-element three-dimensional structures; and (D) for each pair of first and second elements, bringing the first and second elements into contact with one another and elastically deforming at least an initial deformation portion of one of the first or second elements relative to another of the first and second elements to bring the first and second elements into a desired retention configuration which is maintained at least in part by a structural strength of the first and second elements and the at least partial reformation of the deformation portion as the first and second elements move into the retention configuration, and wherein the depositing at least one of the two materials is by electroplating.