Fabrication of Microcoils with Narrow and High Aspect Ratio Lines for Electromagnetic Actuators

Recently, actuators are finding the various fields and many applications. It is one of the most important components in various machines because its performance determines to operate a machine. The demand of micro- and nano- fabrications such as microactuators, microcoils, sensors, etc is increasing. To realize this demand, the key technology is processing of micro-fabrication. We are forcing on the electromagnetic actuators that could be driven at a low voltage and high efficiency. However, this type actuator is known to be unsuitable for miniaturization because current paths of coil lines are small in size. And, it is very difficult to make the microscopic coil lines with three dimensional structures. Therefore, we have fabricated and measured a solenoid type electromagnetic actuator with narrow pitch and high aspect ratio coil lines using X-ray lithography technique. Using this technique, we have obtained the coil lines with a width of 30 mum and an aspect ratio of about 3. It is very expected a high performance microcoil with high aspect ratio could be manufactured in spite of miniature size electromagnetic actuators.