Fabrication Processes for Magnetic Microactuators with Polysilicon Flexures

Electroplated magnetic films have been integrated with silicon-based surface micromachining to fabricate magnetically actuated microflexure structures. Both the “frame-plating” technique and also a less complex onemask plating process have been used to electrodeposit NiFe onto polysilicon flexures coated with Cr-Cu seed layers. The microactuators are released by removing the underlying sacrificial layer in a hydrofluoric-acid etch. The microactuators described in this paper are potentially useful in microphotonic systems as well as other applications.