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Fabrication and testing of the planar magnetic micromotor

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1991 J. Micromech. Microeng. 1 135
(http://iopscience.iop.org/0960-1317/1/3/001)
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J.

Micromech. Microeng. 1 (1991) 135-138. Printed in the UK

Fabrication and testing of the

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H Guckel, K J Skrobis, T R Christenson, J Klein, S Han.

B Choi, E G Fovell and T W Chapman
University of Wisconsin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Madison, WI 53706, USA
Received 22 J u l y 1991, accepted for publication 6 August

1991

Abstract. Planar micromotors have the potential for high-speed control

applications. These systems require closed loop control and therefore involve not
only the motor but also the associated high-speed control circuitry. Electrostatic
devices with submicron gaps and CMOS controllers offer one possible construction
technique. Magnetic motors with bipolar microelectronics are an attractive
alternative.
Magnetic micromotors have been constructed by using deep x-ray lithography
and metal plating with a modified LIGA process. The devices are designed as
reluctance motors and consist of a stator that is rigidly attached to t h e substrate
and a rotor that is fabricated as a fully released, free part. Both pieces are formed
irom nickei and are typicaiiy i 0 0 p in inickness. Tile rotor is assembiea onto the
stator shaft with submicron tolerances. The structure is driven by an external
rotating magnet or a fixed electromagnet. Rotational speeds of up to 8000rpm
have been obtained and maintained for several days.
The rotor design takes advantage of the fact that reluctance motors do not
require stator to rotor capacitances that are functions of rotational position. The
rotor periphery can therefore be shaped with gear teeth, which are used to couple
mechanical energy into external gears. This loaded-motor configuration has been
tested and performed well.
Preliminary test results indicate that the nickel system as reported here has low
frictional losses. Thus, unloaded rotation required less than 1 Og. Loaded rotation
increased the drive flux to 409 or so. This implies that two orders of magnitude
in iiux densities can be used io produce ioaa torque ior iarger mechanicai ioads.

1. Introduction

Planar micromotors are devices that employ integratedcircuit-like fabrication procedures. These structures
should ideally convert electrical energy to mechanical
energy. The conversion efficiency for this transformation
s'.an!d be high. Most impor!&, ho.vever, is the req-iremen! that the motor can be driven at input power levels
that exceed mechanical losses by orders of magnitude.
This results in a situation in which the device can deliver
mechanical energy or power to a mechanical load, say a
gear train, which is required by the very definition of the
device: a motor.
The evaluation of a motor or technology for building
micromotors must fundamentally deal with two basic
issues: the behavior of internal losses that 'are typically
fridjon induced and the perfermance of the n!rcc!?1rc
with an external load. There are two implications: if the
maximum allowed input power cannot or can barely
Overcome internal losses the technology has failed or is
marginal and must be improved. A second point invokes
the very purpose of the device: a motor. External power
0960.1317/91/030135+04 $03.50 @ 1991 IOP Publishing Ltd

take-off must be provided for via an output shaft or by

some other means. Thus, low internal loss behavior
relative to the maximum allowed input power for a
topologically acceptable physical realization is required
and must be proven early in the technology evaluation.
Micromotors are devices that are physically small
[!,2j. They !herefore have very !OW moments of inertia
and develop low internal stresses during operation. They
are ideally suited for high-speed operation and, in the
case of a linear motor, may have interesting and novel
application potential. The application possibilities require control electronics. A full exploitation of the
anticipated high-speed performance is only possible if the
speed of the control circuits is sufficiently large, which in
some cases implies clock frequencies above 50MHz.
Circuits of this type must in some cases be cofabricated
with the mgtor. They nrnfit from zt? et?uironmest i:
which large voltage swings at high impedance levels are
avoided; this is possible under two conditions. Thus, in
electrostatic actuators, air gap dimensions in !he suhmicron range have been used by Hirano et alC31 to produce
the required electric field strength for sufficient output
135

H Guckel et a/

forces with applied voltages of around 1OV. This was a

necessary step for CMOS to become a candidate for
controller implementation. The alternative involves
magnetics [4]. Magnetic actuators require current drives
ior input impedances o i a iew ohms. The required current
magnitude can be reduced by decreasing the gap dimensions. However, decreased gap distances are not necessary to allow bipolar circuits to become candidates for
control circuits. They can be used for any reasonable gap
dimension that can be manufactured and for which the
drive currents do not become excessive. Figure 1 puts the
last point into perspective. It is a plot of

t&o(V/d)*
(1)
which defines the electrostatic gap pressure p. in terms of
the applied voltage V and the gap distance d; &o is the
vacuum permittivity. Figure 1 also contains an explanation of (2):
P.

P,

(2)

= fpo(n11d)2

where nl is the magnetomotive force in Ampere-turns

and p, is the vacuum permeability. This expression
applies to a magnetic loop with a gap that dominates the
total reluctance of the loop. It has the property that
(3)

B = p0H

where B is the flux density in the gap.

Since the impedance of free space, ( p , / ~ ~ ) is
* , 377R,
equal magnetic and electrostatic gap pressures result if
each volt of electrostatic drive is replaced by
(l/n)2.65 mA. This trade-off is very acceptable in bipolar
circuits.
The data in figure 1 reveal another interesting fact:
electrostatic devices operate below lo6 Vcm-, so the
maximum gap pressure or gap energy density Is therefore
roughly 5 x 105dynes cm-; magnetic materials can
have saturation flux densities of up to 2.0 T [5] implying
that, potentially, gap pressures of lo7 dynes cm-2 are
achievable and could be used to produce load torque. It
therefore appears as if the load range for a magnetic
motor exceeds that of an equivalent electrostatic device
(same gap, same friction) by a significant amount.
Furthermore, current-driving conditions that attempt to

0.05 *nprclnu

.I

10

O.UA~*Uln.

,.o*mprryUlu

100

Gap Distance ( ~ m )

Figure 1. Electric and magnetic gap pressure as a

function of gap distance for various excitations.
136

produce flux densities above the saturation level are

relatively harmless. Voltages that lead to fields above
breakdown result in corona, which can cause permanent
damage or loss of control.
A final point concerns material avaiiabllity: magnetic
substances can be soft or hard, permanent magnets can
be realized and repulsive and attractive forces can be
produced. Their counterparts, electrets, are conceivable
but are difficult to produce for micromotor applications.
These discussions do not imply that magnetic micromotors are better than electrostatic micromotors; instead
they lead to the assertion that micromotor systems may
be easier to realize via magnetics because of material
flexibility and because the interfacing to microelectronics
appears to be feasible.
2. Construction technique

The previous discussion is based on the assumption that

high permeability materials are available and can be
shaped to the desired accuracy by integrated-circuit-like
processing. Material selection could involve ceramics or
metals and in particular, nickel-cobalt-iron alloys. The
maieriai of choice ior preliminary experiments is pure
nickel. Refinements for optimized magnetic performance
are reserved for a later date.
The processing procedure is based on deep x-ray
lithography and electroplating. This technology is a
variation of the original german LIGA process [6] and
involves a substrate, which can be silicon but must not be
silicon that is covered by a plating base. An unpatterned
plating base is formed by sputtering 150A of titanium
followed by 150A of nickel. The entire substrate is then
covered by a thick layer oi x-ray photoresist, which is
mildly cross-linked polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).
Resist thicknesses of 1M) to 200 pm require casting rather
than spin-on procedures. Exposure through a mask via
high-intensity x-rays is best accomplished on a synchrotron where flux densities of 1 to 2Wcm- are
available. The spectrum for this type of radiation is a
continuum with power-averaged wavelengths of a few
angstrom. Since the collimation of this source is nearly
perfect, diffraction effects for structures above 0.1 pm are
essentially absent. Standing-wave problems that can
occur for optical systems are absent because x-ray
photons are absorbed by atomic processes. Pattern
transfer from mask to photoresist is therefore nearly
perfect and produces vertical flanks between exposed and
unexposed PMMA without pattern bleeding. The use of a
developing system with very high exposed to unexposed
selectivity converts the PMMA layer to a mold with
vertical walls for electroplating. The number of possible
metals is very large. However, in the interest of speedy
progress, nickel plating in the micron per minute range is
employed. Removal of the photoresist results in nickel
structures which are fully attached to the substrate
and are as thick as the x-ray photoresist. If structures of
this type are removed from the substrate, geometric
distortion due to internal stress non-uniformities does

Fabrication and testing of the planar magnetic micromotor

not occur for the plating conditions used. This behavior
can be exploited by modifying the process with an
unpatterned release layer [7]. Thus, if the substrate is
covered prior to plating-base sputtering with a suitable
sacrificial layer (in the present case a form of soft
polyimide) fully removeable free-standing structures can
be fabricated.
This processing sequence can be used to study the
basic issues for a magnetic planar motor. The fixed stator
can be fabricated on a substrate without a sacrificial layer
and consists of the pole pieces and the bearing shaft for
the motor. Figure 2 illustrates the basic idea. Magnetic
energy can be coupled into the stator by current windings
or by using an external rotating magnet or fixed
electromagnet. In the present case current windings were
considered premature because the frictional behavior
was not understood.
The rotor can be fabricated on a second substrate,
which does use a sacrificial layer, and must then be
assembled into the stator structure. This technique produces very good results. Structures for which the stator
shaft was only 0.5pm smaller in diameter than the rotor
bearing hole were produced and worked well because the
processing sequence does produce flanks for which the
run-out is less than 3000A in 100pm of height. This sort
of tolerance seems to be impossible for fabrication
procedures that use subtractive procedures such as
plasma etching. The end result is an assembled rotor that
has extremely low frictional losses.
The rotor design anticipates a reluctance motor; this

Figure 3. Assembled reluctance motor. The rotor was

fabricated on a separate substrate, released, and
assembled on the above stator.

implies that the magnetic circuit from one pole piece

through the rotor to the opposing pole piece must have a
reluctance that depends on the rotational position of the
rotor. This requirement is satisfied if the rotor is fabricated as a round disc from which two internal high
permeability regions have been removed. Figure 3 illustrates the structure. The ability to produce a magnetic
motor with an air gap capacitance between stator and
rotor that is not a function of rotation angle has
important application. Thus, the rotor in figure 3 has
gear teeth on its periphery. These teeth in turn can be
connected to gears or gear trains to study the frictional
behavior of a loaded motor. Figure 4 shows the
arrangement.

3. Test results

Figure 2. Stator configuration of a magnetic four-pole

motor. All structures are composed of electroplated nickel
of height 100pm.

The motor as shown in figures 3 and 4 has been operated

successfully via external magnet excitation at speeds of
up to 8000rpm. The magnetic field required to overcome
static friction for an unloaded micromotor is estimated to
be below l o g or roughly I O times the earths magnetic
field. This implies that friction for the nickel system is
quite low, this being particularly true since the nickel was
used as deposited and was found to have a relative
permeability of only 100 or so for low flux densities.
Improvements with appropriate heat treatment are
expected.
137

H G uckel et a/
behavior, will have to be made in order to establish a
reasonable theory for the device.
Acknowledgment

The above work has been supported in part by NSF

grant EET-8815285.
References
[t] Mehregany M, Nagarkar P, Senturia S D and Lang J H
1990 Operation of microfahricated harmonic and
ordinary side-drive motors Proc. 3rd Micro Electro
Mechanical Systems (Napa Valley, CA, 1990) (IEEE

Figure 4. Assembled and loaded reluctance motor.

The loaded motor as shown in figure 4 overcame

static friction at roughly 40g but, again, there were
handicaps: the gears, being magnetic, interfered with the
applied field. Even under these conditions, the minimum
required field is acceptable.
The experiment is now continuing with the current to
magnetic field conversion windings. The true speed
behavior and load characteristic can then be measured
and will be reported in the future. Careful material
characterizations, in particular permanent magnet

138

New York) pp 1-8

[2] Tang W C, Nguyen T-C H and Howe R T 1989
Laterally driven polysilicon resonant microstructures
Sensors and Actuators 20 33-40
[3] Hirano T, Furuhata T, Gabriel K J and Fujita H 1991
Operation of sub-micron gap electrostatic comb-drive
actuators Int. Con/: on Solid-Bate Sensors and
Actuafors (Transducers '91) (San Fransisco, C A ,
1991j Technical Digest pp 873-6
[4] Guckel H, Skrobis K I, Christenson T R, Klein J, Han
S, Choi B, Lovell E G and Chapman T W 1991 On
the application of deep x-ray lithography with
sacrificial layers to sensor and actuator construction
(the magnetic motor with power takeoffs) Int. Conf.
on Solid-Sfare Sensors and Acfuators (Transducers
'91j (San Fransisco, CA, 1991) Paper substitution
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[SI Bozorth R M 1951 Ferromagnetism (Van Nostrand)
[q Ehrfeld w , Gdtze F, Miinchmeyer D, Schelh Wand
Schmidt D 1988 LIGA process: sensor construction
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19881 (New York IEEE) Technical Digest pp 1-4
171 Guckel H, Skrohis K J, Christenson T R, Klein J, Han
S, Choi B and Lovell E G 1991 Fabrication of
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x-ray lithography Proc. IEEE Micro Electro
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