Earticle

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the bonding durability of self-etching dentin bonding agents to dentin by means of shear bonding strength. Several acid-etching dentin bonding system (ESPE Z100) and self-etching dentin bonding systems (DEN-FIL, GRADIA DIRET) were used. The occlusion surface of human molars were ground flat to expose dentin and treated with the etch bonding system according to manufactures instruction and followed by composite resin application. After 24hours of storage at 37 , the shear bonding strength of the specimens was measured in a universal testing machine with a 1mm/min crosshead speed. An one-way analysis of variance and the scheffe test were performed to identify significant differences (p<0.05). The bonded interfacial surfaces and treated dentin surfaces were examined using a SEM. Through the analysis of shear bond strength data and micro-structures of dentin-resin interfaces, following results are obtained. In dentin group, the shear bond strength of DEN-FIL showed statistical superiority in comparison to the other groups and followed by ESPE Z100 and GRADIA DIRECT (p<0.05).

The microstructures of soybean milk curds, prepared by different coagulation methods, were observed by the scaning electron microscope. Th curd coagulated by theaddition of bacerial soybean mil clotting enzyme showed little textural changes and gave smoother gel than those prepared either by lactic acid fermentation using Streptococcus thermophilus or by the addition of CaSO$_4$. The curds obtained by lactic acid fermentation and by the addition of inorganic salt exhibited three dimensional network structure which indicated harder gel than that prepared by soybean mil clotting enzyme.

This study presents a novel scheme for manufacturing a large area molds with alignment microstructures electroplated from lateral joining of small area silicon plates. Conventional methods for manufacturing metal molds with nano or microstructures are extremely challenging. Semiconductor fabrication procedures that utilize photolithographic processes to generate nano-scale features easily limit wafer scale. However, a large area silicon mold with small features has been developed. However, its drawbacks were serious misalignment, tilting, and brittleness. This work presents a novel approach for fabricating a metal mold with precisely aligned microstructures. The gap, alignment precision, tilt, and height difference between the two joined plates joined laterally by passive alignment recombining techniques were all on a micro scale. Furthermore, the measurements of the metal molds and Polyvinylchloride (PVC) replicas were extremely similar. Moreover, the scalability of the technique was demonstrated using four small area silicon plates. Consequently, this approach has significant potential for bridging the technological gap between conventional precision machining and photolithography-based micromachining for metal molds exceeding typical wafer size with small features.

As demands for complex microstructures with high aspect ratios have increased, the existing methods, MEMS and LIGA, have had difficulties coping with the number of masks and fabricable heights. A microstereolithography technology can meet these demands because it has no need of masks and is capable of fabricating high aspect ratio microstructures. In this technology, 3D part is fabricated by stacking layers, 2D sections, which are sliced from STL file, and the Dynamic Image Projection process enables the resin surface to be cured by a dynamic image generated with $DMD^{TM}$ (Digital Micromirror Device) and one irradiation. In this paper, we address optical design process for implementing this microstereolithography system that takes the light path based on DMD operation and image-formation on the resin surface using an optical design program into consideration. To verify the performance of this implemented microstereolithography system, complex 3D microstructures with high aspect ratios were fabricated.

A nano-stereolithography is the direct patterning process with a nanoscale resolution using twophoton absorption induced by a femtosecond laser. However, in the majority of the works, the fabrication of 3D microstructures have been done only onto transparent glass due to the use of an oil immersion objective lens for achieving a high resolution. In this work, the coaxial illumination and the auto-focusing system are proposed for the direct patterning of nano-precision patterns on an opaque substrate such as a silicon wafer and a metal substrate. Through this work, 3D polymer structures and metallic patterns are fabricated on a silicon wafer using the developed process.

MEMS and LIGA technologies have been used for fabricating microstructures, but their shape is not 3D because of difficulty for preparation of many masks. To fabricate 3D microstructures, microstereolithography technology based on Digital Micromirror Device($DMD^{TM}$) was introduced. It has no need of masks and is capable of fabricating high aspect ratio microstructures. In this technology, STL file is the standard format as the same of conventional rapid prototyping system, and 3D parts are fabricated by layer-by-layer according to 2D section sliced from STL file. The UV light source is illuminated to DMD which makes bitmap images of 2D section, and they are transferred and focused on resin surface. In this paper, we addressed optical design of microstereolithography system in consideration of light path according to DMD operation and image-forming on the resin surface using optical design program. To verify the performance of implemented microstereolithography system, 3D microstructures with complexity and high aspect ratio were fabricated.

Recently, the lead-time of a product is to be shortened in order to satisfy consumer's demand. It is thus important to reduce the manufacturing time and the cost of 3D-shaped microstructures. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and devices are usually fabricated by lithography-based methods. Above method is not flexible for the rapid manufacture of 3D-shaped microstructures because it depends on work's experiences and requires excessive cost and time for making many masks. In this paper, the effective laser micrornachining is developed to fabricate UV sensitive polymer microstructures using laser ablation. The proposed process, named by laser microRP, is a very useful method on rapid manufacturing for 3D-shaped microstructures.

Solid free-form fabrication (SFF) technology was developed to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) applications. In this study, we developed a polymer deposition system (PDS) and created 3D microstructures using a bioresorbable polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer. Fabrication of 3D scaffolds by PDS requires a combination of several devices, including a heating system, dispenser, and motion controller. The system can process a polymer with extremely high precision by using a 200 ${\mu}m$ nozzle. Based on scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, both the line width and the piled line height were fine and uniform. Several 3D micro-structures, including the ANU pattern (a pattern named after Andong National University), $45^{\circ}$ pattern square, frame, cylindrical, triangular, cross-shaped, and hexagon, have been fabricated using the polymer deposition system.

Conventional machining technologies such as a milling process have limitations in accuracy to fabricate microstructures. Deep X-ray lithography using the synchrotron radiation is a promising micromachining process with an excellent accuracy, whereas there are difficulties in the fabrication of multi-layered structures. Therefore, it is mainly used for fabricating simple mono-layered microstructures with a high aspect ratio. In this study, a novel technology for fabricating multi-layered microstructures is proposed by combining two processes. In advance, an X-ray resist material is cut and machined into various shapes and heights by the micro milling process. Subsequent X-ray irradiation process facilitates the fabrication of multi-layered microstructures. The proposed technology can overcome the limitation of the pattern accuracy in conventional milling process and the difficulty of the multi-layered machining in x-ray process. The usefulness of the proposed technology is demonstrated in this study by applying the technique in the realization of various multi-layered microstructures.

Fabrication of a three-dimensional (3D) metallic mold for multi-production of a microstructure was studied to settle the problem of long processing time in 3D microfabrication. To date, complicated 3D microstructures including 3D photonic crystals, 3D microlens array, 3D filter for microfludics, and something else were created successfully using the two-photon polymerization (TPP) which was considered as paving the way to fabricate a real 3D shape in nano/microscale. However, for those fabrications, much processing time and efforts were inevitably required. To solve this issue, a simple and effective way was proposed in this paper; 3D master patterns were prepared using TPP, and then counter-shaped Ni molds were fabricated by electroforming process. By using these molds, 3D microstructures can be reproduced with short-processing time and low-effort comparing to the conventional approach, TPP We report some parameters to fabricate a metallic mold precisely.

Precise fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) self-standing microstructures on thin glass plates via two-photon induced polymerization (TPP) has been an important issue for innovative 3D nanodevices and microdevices. However, there are still issues remaining to be solved, such as building 3D microstructures on opaque materials via TPP and being able to implant them as functional parts onto practical systems. To settle these issues simply and effectively, we propose a contact print lithography (CPL) method using an ultraviolet (UV)-curable polymer layer. We report some of the possibilities and potential of CPL by presenting our results for transplanting 3D microstructures onto large-area substrates and also our examination of some of the effects of the process parameters on successful transplantation.

Laser-induced thermochemical wet etching of titanium in phosphoric acid has been investigated to examine the feasibility of this method fur fabrication of microstructures. Cutting, drilling, and milling of titanium foil were carried out while examining the influence of process parameters on etch width, etch depth, and edge straightness. Laser power, scanning speed of workpiece, and etchant concentration were chosen as major process parameters influencing on temperature distribution and reaction rate. Etch width increased almost linearly with laser power showing little dependence on scanning speed while etch depth showed wide variation with both laser power and scanning speed. A well-defined etch profile with good surface quality was obtained at high concentration condition. Fabrication of a hole, micro cantilever beam, and rectangular slot with dimension of tess than 100${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ has been demonstrated.

Recently, microstructures fabricated using microstereolithography technology have been used in the biological, medical and mechanical fields. Microstereolithography can fabricate real 3D microstructures with fine features, although there is presently a limited number of materials available for use in the process. Deformation of the fine features on a fabricated microstructure remains a critical issue for successful part fabrication, and part deformation can occur during rinsing or during fabrication as a result of fluid flow forces that occur during movement of mechanical parts of the system. Deformation can result in failure to fabricate a particular feature by breaking the feature completely, spatial deflection of the feature, or attaching the feature to neighboring microstructures. To improve mechanical strength of fabricated microstructures, a clay nanocomposite can be used. In particular, a high-aspect ratio microstructure can be fabricated without distortion using photocurable liquid resin containing a clay nanocomposite. In this paper, a clay nanocomposite was blended with a photocurable liquid resin to solve the deformation problem that occurs during fabrication and rinsing. An optimal mixture ratio of a clay nanocomposite was found through tensile testing and the minimal allowable distance between microstructures was found through fabrication experimentation. Finally, using these results, high-aspect ratio microstructures were fabricated using a clay nanocomposite resin without distortion.

The curing characteristics of a liquid photopolymer during microstereolithography and the shape accuracy of thereby fabricated microstructures were investigated experimentally. A He-Cd laser with a wavelength of 442nm and a photopolymer consisted of a commercial resin from SK chemical and a photoinitiat or were used for the experiment. By varying the laser beam power and scanning speed of the focused laser beam, minimum curing thickness of 50 ${\mu}ㅡ$ was obtained. The distortion of solidified structure due to adhesion force was measured and the optimum fabrication conditions were determined. Also, the feasibility of direct fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures by Super IH process was examined.

Two-photon stereolithography is recognized as a promising process for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) microstructures with 100 nm resolution. Generally, beam-scanning system has been used in the conventional process of two-photon stereolithography, which is limited to the fabrication of micro-prototypes in small area of several tens micrometers. For the applications to 3D high-functional micro-devices, the fabrication area of the process is required to be enlarged. In this paper, large-area two-photon stereolithography (L-TPS) employing stage scanning system has been developed. Continuous scanning method is suggested to improve the fabrication speed and parameter study is conducted. An objective lens of high numerical aperture (N.A.) and high strength material were employed in this system. Through this work, 3D microstructures of $600*600*100\;{\mu}m$ were fabricated.

Two-photon stereolithography (TPS) is recognized as a useful process for the fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures. Recently, the need for a two-photon curable resin with high strength increases as 3-D moicrostructures of high aspect ratio or large scale of several hundreds micrometers are required for applications of nano/micro devices in IT/BT. In this work, process parameters of TPS employing the SU-8 which is a representative two-photon curable resin with high strength have been studied for the precise fabrication of 3-D microstructures with high strength. The pre-baking and post-baking processes are studied and the parameter study of the SU-8 in TPS is conducted. Through this work, very small roughness of 12 nm and the minimum aspect ratio of ${\sim}1$ which provides a precise accumulation of layers could be obtained. Using the conditions studied in this work, some 3-D examples are fabricated.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of microstructures and mechanical properties of pure titanium casting specimens as a function of mold temperatures. The pure titanium castings were fabricated using the centrifugal vacuum casting method with different mold temperatures of 200~500℃ . The resulting castings were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and vicker,s hardness tester. In case of the mold temperatures over 400℃, the porosity, surface crack and large grain size were observed in resulting castings. In this work, The most suitable mold temperature in casting of pure titanium was 300℃.