UCLA Case No. 2018-014
SUMMARY
UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical Engineering have developed a novel batch microfabrication technique for microscale shielding layers, simultaneously pushing the limits of minimum size, maximum shielding factor, flexibility, and cost.
BACKGROUND
Compact electromagnetic shielding paves the way for a new generation of high precision systems, such as for atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) technology, where long term stability of atomic sensors is desirable for timing and navigation. Magnetic shields are conventionally machined single or multi-layer structures, resulting in costly and bulky shields best suited for macro-scale enclosures. There exists a need for a microfabrication process that allows cost and time effective fabrication for micro-scale magnetic shields.
INNOVATION
UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical Engineering have developed a novel microfabrication technique for rapid and automated alternating electrodeposition between Permalloy and copper baths for batch microfabrication of microscale shielding layers, leveraging parallelism to simultaneously push the limits of minimum size, maximum shielding factor, flexibility, time and cost. The invented microfabrication technique achieved the largest reported shielding factor of 4500, and the first ever chip-scale shielding factor of 100 using batch microfabrication.
APPLICATIONS
- Self-contained navigation system
- Optical connections
- AMO technology
- Magnetoresistve random-access memory
- Miniaturized magnetic devices
ADVANTAGES
- Large shielding factor
- Low cost
- Measurable chip-scale shielding factor
- Fast fabrication from parallelism
STATE OF DEVELOPMENT
Prototype demonstrated.
RELATED MATERIALS
J. C. Wu, L. Li, J. C. Harrison, and R. N. Candler, Micro-to millimeter scale magnetic shielding, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS), 2017.