Small-Scale Metal Castings, Small-Scale Metal/Transparent Composite Structures, and Process to Produce the Same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018304352-A1
Application number	US-201615768019-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 10, 2016
Priority date	Nov 10, 2015
Publication date	Oct 25, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

The method comprises at least the following steps: —exposing a substrate to focused laser irradiation at a preselected series of locations that trace a subset of the substrate volume that is connected to the surface of the substrate; some subsets of substrate volume not connected to the surface of the substrate may also be exposed at the same time for other purposes, for instance, so that they can be used as waveguides or other optical elements or for another subsequent etching step; —removing the substrate material from the exposed preselected series of locations to create within the substrate at least one cavity that is connected to the surface of the substrate; —immersing the cavity-containing substrate in an appropriate atmosphere such as a selected gas or vacuum and, within this atmosphere, —contacting the substrate surface with the molten castable material surface at locations where the cavity or cavities emerges from the substrate; —applying pressure to the castable material to cause it to infiltrate the substrate cavities; and —solidifying the castable material within the cavities.

First claim

1 - 22 . (canceled)

23 . A method for casting a castable material in a substrate comprising the steps of:
exposing the substrate to focused laser irradiation at a preselected series of locations form a subset of a volume of the substrate connected to a surface of the substrate; removing a material from the exposed preselected series of locations of the substrate to create a cavity in the substrate that is connected to the surface of the substrate; immersing the cavity-containing substrate to an appropriate atmosphere; contacting the surface of the cavity-containing substrate with a surface of a molten castable material at locations where the cavity emerges from the substrate during the step of immersing, the substrate remaining solid at a melting temperature of the molten castable material; applying a pressure to the molten castable material to cause the molten castable material to infiltrate the cavity of the substrate; and solidifying the castable material within the cavity of the substrate.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the step of exposing the substrate to the focused laser irradiation includes at least one of a step of removing the volume of the substrate by laser ablation, a step of selective etching, and a step of flushing.

25 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the substrate includes an oxide glass with at least one of fused silica, borosilicate glass, aluminosilicate glass, tellurite glass, germanosilicate glass, a microporous glass, and a nanoporous glass.

26 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the substrate includes at least one of a laser-transparent crystalline and semi-crystalline ceramic.

27 . The method of claim 26 , wherein the semi-crystalline ceramic includes at least one of a sapphire, a ruby, a diamond, a nitride, a carbide, and silicon.

28 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the castable material includes at least one of a metal and a metal alloy.

29 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the castable material includes at least one of copper, silver, gold, platinum, palladium, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, tin, nickel, iron, titanium, and an alloy thereof.

30 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the castable material includes a semiconductor including at least one of silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, titanium dioxide, and an alloy thereof.

31 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising the step of:
heating the substrate to a temperature that exceeds the melting temperature of the castable material, before the step of contacting.

32 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the step of solidifying further comprises the step of:
directionally solidifying the molten castable material to prevent a presence of shrinkage cavities within the castable material.

33 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the step of immersing is performed before the step of contacting.

34 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising the step of:
removing the material of the substrate to create a shaped casting of the castable material.

35 . The method of claim 34 , wherein the step of removing is performed by chemical etching the material of the substrate material but not the castable material.

36 . The method of claim 35 , wherein the step of removing is performed by mechanical means.

37 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising the step of:
producing at least one of additional cavities and precracks in the substrate to ease release of the solidified castable material from the substrate, before the step of removing.

38 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising the steps of:
after the step of exposing and removing, exposing the substrate again to focused laser irradiation at a second preselected series of locations for infiltration and solidification of the castable material, to form a network of channels around which the castable material can create at least one of electric and magnetic fields.

39 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the appropriate atmosphere includes at least one of a selected gas and a vacuum.

40 . A product comprising a substrate and a castable material, the castable material obtained by the method defined in claim 22 .

41 . A product obtained by the method defined in claim 34 , wherein the product is at least one of a micromechanical component with flexible elements, a component for watches, an implant, a microheater, a battery structure, an ornamental element for jewelry, a microfluidic structure, a component including an electrolyte, an array of castable elements, a watch cover including a metal numeral.

Assignees

• Ecole Polytechnique Fed Lausanne Epfl

Inventors

• Mortensen Andreas
• Bellouard Yves
• Charvet Raphaël
• Dénéréaz Cyril

Classifications

• B23K26/0624

  using ultrashort pulses, i.e. pulses of 1 ns or less · CPC title

• C03C17/10

  by deposition from the liquid phase · CPC title

• B22D18/00

  Pressure casting; Vacuum casting (B22D17/00 takes precedence; treating the metal in the mould by using pressure or vacuum B22D27/00) · CPC title

• C03C23/0025

  by a laser beam · CPC title

• C03C15/00

  Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by etching (etching or surface-brightening compositions, in general C09K13/00) · CPC title