Silicon Insert Molded Plastic (SIMP)

As demand for smaller devices continues to increase, current manufacturing processes will find it more challenging to meet cost, quantity, and dimensional requirements. While microfabrication technology processes can create electronic devices in vast quantities with increasingly smaller dimensions, they are challenged to do so for mechanical devices at low cost and in large quantity. More traditional manufacturing processes such as machining or injection molding can more easily meet cost and quantity requirements, but cannot currently match the dimensional abilities of microfabrication processes. By merging microfabrication and traditional injection molding techniques, the benefits of both technologies can be combined to produces parts to meet all three requirements. The objective of this research is to investigate the possibilities of injection molding polymer parts with sub-micron three-dimensional features using a process called Silicon Insert Molded Plastics (SIMP). Using traditional mold making processes, molds can be manufactured which allow for parts tolerances of approximately ±130µm [1]. State of the art commercial micro-injection molding technology can produce parts typically are in the range of less than 100 mg with critical dimensions of less than 1mm. Micro