ABSTRACT
The microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) field has traditionally been dominated by silicon micromachining. In the early days, efforts were concentrated on fabricating various silicon structures and relatively simple components and devices were developed. For describing this kind of microelectromechanical structures the acronym MEMs is used. A growing interest in manufacturing technologies other than the integrated circuit (IC)-inspired silicon wafer and batch MEMs fabrication is evident in the microsystem field today. This interest in alternative technologies has surfaced with the desire to use new MEMs materials that enable a greater degree of geometrical freedom than materials that rely on planar photolithography as a means to define the structure. One such new MEMs material is plastic, which can be used to produce low-cost, disposable microdevices through microreplication.
