Superplastic Forming of Bulkmetallic Glass-Atechnology for MEMS and Microstructure Fabrication

Superplastic forming (SPF) of bulk metallic glass (BMG) is introduced as a MEMS and microstructure fabrication method, as part of a MEMS fabrication toolkit. Forming of the BMG takes place in the supercooled liquid region, where the BMG exists as a highly viscous metastable liquid. In this temperature region some BMGs can be formed very similar to plastics under comparable forming pressure and temperatures. This technology allows precise replication of small features with a homogeneous material, free of stresses and porosity. Our processing method includes a hot-cutting technique that enables separation of the parts from the BMG reservoir and leaves a flat plane. It also allows creating net-shape three dimensional parts on the micron scale.