Microspring with conductive coating deposited on tip after release

摘要

Efficient methods are disclosed for fabricating spring structures in which a passive, conductive coating is deposited onto the spring structure after release. A release layer is deposited on a substrate and then a spring metal layer is formed thereon. A first mask is then used to etch the spring metal layer to form a spring metal finger. A second (release) mask is then deposited that defines a release window used to remove a portion of the release layer and release a free end of the spring metal finger. The second mask is also used as a mask during the subsequent directional deposition of a conductive coating material on the cantilevered tip of the finger. The second mask is then stripped, and the residual coating deposited thereon is lifted off. The resulting spring structure includes conductive coating on the upper surface and front edge of the finger tip.