Microfabrica Inc.

University of Southern California

Boston University

Children's Hospital Boston

Uri Frodis

Michael S Lockard

Adam L Cohen

Dennis R Smalley

Richard T Chen

Kieun Kim

Gang Zhang

Pavel B Lembrikov

Arun S Veeramani

Qui T Le

Dale S McPherson

Ananda H Kumar

Gregory Paul Schmitz

Ming Ting Wu

Heath A Jensen

Christopher G Wiita

Irina Boguslavsky

Eric C Miller

Paul D Ronney

Jorge Sotelo Albarran

Lars Sitzki

Eckart H Meiburg

Steffen Wussow

Christopher A Bang

Christopher R Folk

Pedro J Del Nido

Vacit Arat

Ezekiel J J Kruglick

Nikolay V Vasilyev

Rulon Joseph Larsen, Iii

Will J Tan

Stefano Felici

Jeffrey A Thompson

Onnik Yaglioglu

Pierre E Dupont

Juan Diego Perea

Eli Baldwin

Nina C Levy

Gabriel Jacobsohn

Jia Li

Michael S Lockhard

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to heat transfer arrays, cold plates including heat transfer arrays along with inlets and outlets, and thermal management systems including cold-plates, pumps and heat exchangers. These devices and systems may be used to provide cooling of semiconductor devices or other devices and particularly such devices that produce high heat concentrations. The heat transfer arrays may include microjets, multi-stage microjets, microchannels, fins, wells, wells with flow passages, well with stress relief or stress propagation inhibitors, and integrated microjets and fins.

Micro heat transfer arrays, micro cold plates, and thermal management systems for semiconductor devices, and methods for using and making such arrays, plates, and systems

Embodiments are directed to the formation micro-scale or millimeter scale structures or methods of making such structures wherein the structures are formed from at least one sheet structural material and may include additional sheet structural materials or deposited structural materials wherein all or a portion of the patterning of the structural materials occurs via laser cutting. In some embodiments, selective deposition is used to provide a portion of the patterning. In some embodiments the structural material or structural materials are bounded from below by a sacrificial bridging material (e.g. a metal) and possibly from above by a sacrificial capping material (e.g. a metal).

Methods of forming parts using laser machining

Vertical probes, formed of at least one layer that longitudinally includes a first and a second end and a central portion, with the central portion including at least three compliant arms wherein each of the two outer arms include a material having a yield strength greater than a first amount and the at least one intermediate arm is formed of a material having a yield strength less than the first yield strength amount wherein a yield strength of the material of the intermediate arm has a ratio to that of an outer arm of less than 1, more preferably less than 0.8, even more preferably less than 0.6, and most preferably less than 0.4.

Multi-beam vertical probes with independent arms formed of a high conductivity metal for enhancing current carrying capacity and methods for making such probes

Embodiments are directed to microscale and millimeter scale multi-layer structures (e.g. probe structures for making contact between two electronic components for example in semiconductor wafer and chip and electronic component test applications). Some embodiments of the invention provide structures that include a core and shell on at least one layer where the layer including the shell is formed from at least one core material and at least one shell material wherein the shell material is different from a shell material or a single structural material on at least one of an immediately preceding layer or an immediately succeeding layer and wherein the core material is different from any core material on at least one of an immediately preceding layer or an immediately succeeding layer.

Probes having improved mechanical and/or electrical properties for making contact between electronic circuit elements and methods for making

Probe arrays include spacers attached to the probes that were formed along with the probes. Methods of making probe arrays by (1) forming probes on their sides and possibly as linear arrays or combination subarrays (e.g. as a number of side-to-side joined linear arrays) having probes fixed in array positions by a sacrificial material that is temporarily retained after formation of the probes; (2) assembling the probe units into full array configurations using the spacers attached to the probes or using alternative alignment structures to set the spacing and/or alignment of the probe(s) of one unit with another unit; and (3) fixing the probes in their configurations (e.g. bonding to a substrate and/or engaging the probes with one or more guide plates) wherein the spacers are retained or are removed, in whole or in part, prior to putting the array to use.

Vertical probe arrays and improved methods for making using temporary or permanent alignment structures for setting or maintaining probe-to-probe relationships

Embodiments are directed to the formation of buckling beam probe arrays having MEMS probes that are engaged with guide plates during formation or after formation of the probes while the probes are held in the array configuration in which they were formed. In other embodiments, probes may be formed in, or laterally aligned with, guide plate through holes. Guide plate engagement may occur by longitudinally locating guide plates on probes that are partially formed or fully formed with exposed ends, by forming probes within guide plate through holes, by forming guide plates around probes, or forming guide plates in lateral alignment with arrayed probes and then longitudinally engaging the probes and the through holes of the guide plates. Final arrays may include probes and a substrate to which the probes are bonded along with one or more guide plates while in other embodiments final arrays may include probes held by a plurality of guide plates (e.g. 2, 3, 4 or even more guide plates) with aligned or laterally shifted hole patterns.

Buckling beam probe arrays and methods for making such arrays including forming probes with lateral positions matching guide plate hole positions

Embodiments are directed to fuel injectors for internal combustion engines (e.g. engines with reciprocating pistons and with compression-ignition or spark-ignition, Wankel engines, turbines, jets, rockets, and the like) and more particularly to improved nozzle configurations for use as part of such fuel injectors. Other embodiments are directed to enabling fabrication technology that can provide for formation of nozzles with complex configurations and particularly for technologies that form structures via multiple layers of selectively deposited material or in combination with fabrication from a plurality of layers where critical layers are planarized before attaching additional layers thereto or forming additional layers thereon. Other embodiments are directed to methods and apparatus for integrating such nozzles with injector bodies.

Fuel injector systems, fuel injectors, fuel injector nozzles, and methods for making fuel injector nozzles

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of tissue removal and more particularly to methods and devices for use in medical applications involving selective tissue removal. One exemplary method includes the steps of providing a tissue cutting instrument capable of distinguishing between target tissue to be removed and non-target tissue, urging the instrument against the target tissue and the non-target tissue, and allowing the instrument to cut the target tissue while automatically avoiding cutting of non-target tissue. Various tools for carrying out this method are also described.

Miniature shredding tools for use in medical applications, methods for making, and procedures for using

Some embodiments are directed to techniques for building single layer or multi-layer structures on dielectric or partially dielectric substrates. Certain embodiments deposit seed layer material directly onto substrate materials while others use an intervening adhesion layer material. Some embodiments use different seed layer and/or adhesion layer materials for sacrificial and structural conductive building materials. Some embodiments apply seed layer and/or adhesion layer materials in what are effectively selective manners while others apply the materials in blanket fashion. Some embodiments remove extraneous material via planarization operations while other embodiments remove the extraneous material via etching operations. Other embodiments are directed to the electrochemical fabrication of multilayer mesoscale or microscale structures which are formed using at least one conductive structural material, at least one conductive sacrificial material, and at least one dielectric material. In some embodiments the dielectric material is a UV-curable photopolymer.

Electrochemical fabrication methods incorporating dielectric materials and/or using dielectric substrates

Embodiments are directed to methods of producing devices using modified multi-layer, multi-material electrochemical fabrication processes and/or using a laser cutting processes wherein individual layers or layer groups are formed and then stacked and bonded to produce prototypes or production parts. The methods can reduce the cost and lead time of prototyping when compared with previous multi-layer, multi-material electrochemical fabrication processes and can also reduce the lead time of production quantities, by allowing multiple layers of a multilayer device to be formed simultaneously, e.g. in parallel on the same wafer. Additionally, these methods may be used to extend the maximum height to which parts may practically be made. Finally, the methods allow geometries that are impossible, impractical or difficult to release (e.g. microfluidic devices such as pumps or parts with long, narrow channels) to be fabricated in multiple pieces and then joined after full or partial release.

Stacking and bonding methods for forming multi-layer, three-dimensional, millimeter scale and microscale structures

The present invention relates generally to the field of micro-scale or millimeter scale devices and to the use of multi-layer multi-material electrochemical fabrication methods for producing such devices with particular embodiments relate to shredding devices and more particularly to shredding devices for use in medical applications. In some embodiments, tissue removal devices are used in procedures to removal spinal tissue and in other embodiments, similar devices are used to remove thrombus from blood vessel.

Miniature shredding tool for use in medical applications and methods for making

Some embodiments of the present invention provide processes and apparatus for electrochemically fabricating multilayer structures (e.g. mesoscale or microscale structures) with improved endpoint detection and parallelism maintenance for materials (e.g. layers) that are planarized during the electrochemical fabrication process. Some methods involve the use of a fixture during planarization that ensures that planarized planes of material are parallel to other deposited planes within a given tolerance. Some methods involve the use of an endpoint detection fixture that ensures precise heights of deposited materials relative to an initial surface of a substrate, relative to a first deposited layer, or relative to some other layer formed during the fabrication process. In some embodiments planarization may occur via lapping while other embodiments may use a diamond fly cutting machine.

Method and apparatus for maintaining parallelism of layers and/or achieving desired thicknesses of layers during the electrochemical fabrication of structures

Some embodiments of the present invention are directed to techniques for building up single layer or multi-layer structures on dielectric or partially dielectric substrates. Certain embodiments deposit seed layer material directly onto substrate materials while other embodiments use an intervening adhesion layer material. Some embodiments use different seed layer materials and/or adhesion layer materials for sacrificial and structural conductive building materials. Some embodiments apply seed layer and/or adhesion layer materials in what are effectively selective manners while other embodiments apply the materials in blanket fashion. Some embodiments remove extraneous depositions (e.g. depositions to regions unintended to form part of a layer) via planarization operations while other embodiments remove the extraneous material via etching operations. Other embodiments are directed to the electrochemical fabrication of multilayer mesoscale or microscale structures which are formed using at least one conductive structural material, at least one conductive sacrificial material, and at least one dielectric material. In some embodiments the dielectric material is a UV-curable photopolymer.

Electrochemical fabrication processes and apparatus for producing single layer or multi-layer structures where each layer includes the deposition of at least two materials and wherein the formation of at least some layers includes operations for reducing stress and/or curvature distortion when the structure is released from a sacrificial material which surrounded it during formation and possibly when released from a substrate on which it was formed. Six primary groups of embodiments are presented which are divide into eleven primary embodiments. Some embodiments attempt to remove stress to minimize distortion while others attempt to balance stress to minimize distortion.

Methods of forming three-dimensional structures having reduced stress and/or curvature

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Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Uri Frodis