Fully Additive Fabrication of Electrically Anisotropic Multilayer Materials Based on Sequential Electrodeposition

MEMS-enabled multilayer composites, in which microfabrication is used to create micron-scale thickness layers within the volume of meso-scale thickness structures, can be exploited to create materials with highly anisotropic electromagnetic properties. Such materials have utility in both sensing and energy applications, including electrostatic and magnetic energy storage and conversion. A fabrication challenge in realizing these classes of materials lies in the size-scale disparity between the thickness of an individual layer and the desired thickness of the final anisotropic material. We demonstrate a fully additive sequential electrochemical deposition approach for such structures, which enables scalable composite volume while maintaining micron-scale individual layer thicknesses. Alternating metal and polymer layers, which exhibit very different electrical conductivities, are continuously electrodeposited in batch-scale. Individual layer thicknesses are controlled by deposition currents and times, while lateral extents are defined by lithographically defined molds. The fabrication process is illustrated using electrodeposited NiFe alloys and polypyrrole, and the anisotropy of electrical conductivity is assessed for potential use of these structures as magnetic cores for high frequency switching converters. Due to the relatively resistive polypyrrole layers, electrical anisotropy of lateral to vertical conductivity exceeding 10
⁶
was achieved. This approach offers a solution-based, microfabrication compatible, and manufacturable route to functional composite materials that exhibit high electrical anisotropies.