Micromachining techniques for liquid crystal polymer

This paper reports newly developed microfabrication techniques for liquid crystal polymer (LCP) for the first time. LCP is a thermal plastic polymer with regularly aligned molecule chains. It exhibits excellent electrical, physical, and chemical properties, which make it suitable for many MEMS applications. The chemical compatibility of LCP with commonly used chemicals is investigated in this work. MEMS fabrication processes such as metallization, plasma bulk etching, and low temperature thermal lamination have been developed. These micromachining techniques are successfully demonstrated by the development of a microfluid channel system composed of LCP/glass assembly.