Authors:
Toshiyuki Horiuchi
;
Kaiki Ito
;
Jun-ya Iwasaki
and
Hiroshi Kobayashi
Affiliation:
Tokyo Denki University, 5 Senju-Asahi-cho, Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Keyword(s):
Fabrication Method, Cylindrical Structure, Stent, Lithography, Chemical Etching, Chemical Polishing, Rotary Scan-projection Exposure, Stainless-steel Pipe.
Abstract:
Applicability of characteristic subtractive processes of stainless-steel pipes to fabrication of minute structures such as stents was demonstrated. Pipes with an outer diameter of 2 mm, a thickness of 50 µm, and a length of 50 mm were coated with a resist PMER N-CA3000 PM in approximately 10 µm thick in 20 mm area at the tip parts of pipes. Next, stent-like mesh patterns composed of 30 rhombuses on an ordinary flat film reticle were replicated on a pipe using a rotary scan-projection exposure system, in which patterns were precisely and homogeneously replicated by synchronously scanning the reticle linearly in perpendicular to the pipe axis and rotating the pipe at a constant speed. All the patterns on the reticle were continuously replicated during the pipe was rotated 360º. After printing the stent-like mesh patterns, the pipes were processed in two steps. In the first step, they were wetly etched in FeCl3 aqueous solution, and in the second step, they were chemically polished in a
chemical compound on the market. As a result, a stent-like meshed pipe with mesh widths of 83±6 µm was precisely fabricated.
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