University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK

Micro- and nano-scale manufacturing has been the focus of extensive of research for well over 2 decades. Visit this Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting of our partner euspen.

When looking at micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturing, traditional lithography-based technologies have held sway fro some time. In recent years, however, there has been a ground swell of new and evolving micro manufacturing fabrication technologies that can produce parts and components with micro and nano dimensions both accurately and repeatibly.

While these two types of technology are fundamentally different, work in the micro manufacturing arena has focussed on how they can be combined in order to exploit the inherent strengths of each platform, for example using lithography-based technologies to establish nano-structures that can be transferred to 3D parts via injection moulding.

Manufacturing processes at the micro-scale are the key-enabling technologies to bridge the gap between the nano- and the macro-worlds to increase the accuracy of micro/nano-precision production technologies, and to integrate different dimensional scales in mass-manufacturing processes.

Developments such as this will be analysed at the Micro/ Nano SIG, along with an in-depth analysis of existing micro and nano manufacturing technologies and their applications, assembly and handling concerns, micro replication techniques, metrology and quality control issues for micro parts, and machining technologies for molds and micro products.

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