Bottom-up manufacturing of nanocrystalline diamond micro structures and components
F. Versluis (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Ivan Buijnsters – Mentor (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
U. STAUFER – Coach (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
R.A. Norte – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - QN/Groeblacher Lab)
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Abstract
The exceptional material properties of bulk diamond like high stiffness, high thermal conductivity, wide optical transparency, chemical inertness and bio-compatibility make it the material of choice in many high-end applications. Most present-day diamond micro-devices are fabricated by costly and time-consuming top-down methods, such as focussed ion beam milling or reactive ion etching. Hence, bottom-up methods that incorporate selective seeding and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) to produce micro-patterned poly-crystalline diamond are of interest. The present work introduces two novel methods for the bottom-up synthesis of nanocrystalline diamond micro-structures. The first method is based on the precise dispensing of nanodiamond dispersions from a hollow AFM cantilever and is used to manufacture freestanding diamond micro-resonators which are analysed on their frequency response. The second method incorporates maskless lithography to create stencils for selective seeding and enables patterned diamond growth on the single digit micrometer scale. A future step of growing such micro-structures in electrically conductive diamond could open up a vast new range up applications.