Laser printed micron-scale free standing laminate composites: Process and properties

Micron-scale free standing structures were generated via the laser decal transfer process using high viscosity Ag nanoinks without the use of any sacrificial or release layers. Both cantilevered (34×10×0.46 μm3) and doubly suspended beams (38×5×0.46 μm3) were fabricated. Laminate composites were then generated by selectively coating the underside of these structures with silicon using a focused ion beam deposition technique. The static responses of the composite structures were characterized via fitting nanoindentation induced beam deflections with a derived closed-form solution yielding Young’s modulii of the Ag and Si layers as EAg≈40 GPa and ESi≈16 GPa, respectively. The dynamic response of these structures was also characterized via laser vibrometry revealing quality factors of approximately 400 and 800 for cantilevers and microbridges, respectively. Several techniques (static and dynamic) to ascertain the residual stress state of these structures were also employed revealing an average residual stres...