Micro Part Reinforced by Addition of Unidirectional Whisker in Laser Photolithography by Applying Electric Field (Property of Photopolymer and Alignment of Whisker)

Abstract

The purpose of this research work is to produce micro part reinforced by unidirectional whisker in laser photolithography. Electrically conductive whiskers are added to liquid photopolymer. By applying electric field to this mixture, the axes of the whiskers are aligned along the direction of the electric field. Then, the photopolymer is solidified by an irradiation of UV laser in the desired shape. When the electric field is applied, rotating moment aligned along the electric field act the whiskers in the liquid polymer. However, when the value of electric field is small, the rotating moment becomes small. Therefore, the whiskers do not rotate and are not aligned along the electric field because the liquid polymer has the bingham property. The bingham property is measured and the value of electric field to rotate the whisker is examined both theoretically and experimentally in this paper. Using the above results, solidified polymer structures with micro size reinforced by unidirectional whisker are produced by this method.