Design and fabrication of silicon micro components

Due to their manifold benefits, microsystems are being regarded as a key technology for innovation in many branches of industry. One of the leading techniques for the fabrication of microsystems is silicon micromachining. The paper reports on a modular CAD environment for the design of silicon micro components and gives some examples of micromachined devices developed at Braunschweig, including a micro tactile sensor, micro gripper, and micro chemical analysis system.