Review of fabrication and characterization of Nd-Fe-B thick films for magnetic micromachines

Isotropic Nd-Fe-B thick film magnets were prepared by a high-speed pulsed laser deposition method followed by a post annealing. The deposition rate of 90 mu m/h could be successfully achieved, and a pulse annealing was adopted as the post annealing process in order to enhance coercivity. Use of a substrate heating system under the high deposition rate enabled us to obtain anisotropic thick films with (BH)(max) of approximately 120 kJ/m(3), which show the potential for an improvement in the properties of the micromachines. Novel micromachines comprising the isotropic films were introduced