Fabrication of Ceramic Component Using Constrained Surface Microstereolithography

Microstereolithography (MSL) is one of the solid free form fabrication (SFF) techniques which involve fabrication of 3 dimensional (3D) objects by means of laser assisted photopolymerization of resin. The resolution and capability to fabricate high aspect ratio structures makes it suitable technique for the fabrication of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and biomedical devices. Silicon micromachining technique on the other hand has the limitation in fabricating high aspect ratio structures. Also, the ability to fabricate 3D components using wide range of resins makes MSL a versatile technique. Recently resins loaded with ceramic particles have been used to fabricate sub millimetre ceramic devices for MEMS application. However challenge of processing ceramics lies in reducing the viscosity of the suspension for successful recoating and achieving the minimum layer thickness to improve resolution of the part. In the present study ceramic suspensions is prepared using carboxylic acid as dispersant and 1, 6 Hexanediol diacrylate resin. A ceramic structure containing three layers of 50 microns each was fabricated using constrained surface technique and merits and limitations of this technique were investigated.