Design and implementation of a miniature polymer ball bearing slide table

This study presents a novel design and fabrication process to realize a miniature polymer ball bearing slide table (slider) with long linear travel range. The linear slide table consists of a pair of V-shape silicon (111) crystal plane rails, and a suspended slider supported by four polymer ball bearings. The ball-housing on slider is also designed to confine the bearing. The slider, rails, and ball-housings are patterned by DRIE and wet anisotropic etching on double-polished (100) wafer. The ball bearings are fabricated and in-situ self-assembled using the liquid polymer formation technique in buffer liquid. After polymer solidified by UV-curing, the ball bearing is confined in ball-housing. The device is successfully implemented and the traveling test is also demonstrated using magnetic force.