Manufacturing of micro gas bearing for power MEMS applications using nanopowder metallurgy processing

This paper introduces manufacturing of tilting pad gas bearing with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 0.5~1mm for power MEMS (Micro Electomechanical Systems) applications. Potential applications include micro gas turbines (100W) for mobile robots, turbo compressors/micro blower for micro fuel cells, micro bearings for pediatric heart, etc. Ultra fine gas bearing for micro component is so complicated that it is hard to fabricate by conventional machining from a manufacturing point of view. In the field of a manufacturing technology for micro parts, nanopowder processing has received a great deal of attention in recent years. In this study, the nanopowder tilting pad gas bearings were prepared by two different methods using: Ni-metal mold by LIGA process, and PDMS soft mold. The effect of the manufacturing condition on sintering properties of metal-nanopowder gas bearing was investigated. The density, shrinkage behavior and dimensional stabilities were analyzed, and the reproducibility was discussed in the compaction and sintering step.