Micro powder metallurgy for the replicative production of metallic microstructures

Reproductive techniques like injection molding or embossing of feedstock provide microstructures of a wide variety of materials for a reasonable price to micro system technology. In this paper, the dependencies and barriers to produce high aspect ratio structures by micro metal injection molding are described; some results of embossing of metal powder based feedstocks are presented, too. The investigations show different influencing parameters for reaching high aspects ratios. The main factor is the used powder, finer powders allow higher aspect ratios. Moreover, the binder system, the feedstock (mixture of powder and binder) and the quality of the injection mold influence the reproduction process.