Methods of Reducing Interlayer Discontinuities in Electrochemically Fabricated Three-Dimensional Structures

Abstract

Disclosed methods reduce the discontinuities that between individual layers of a structure that is formed at least in part using electrochemical fabrication techniques. Discontinuities may exist between layers of a structure as a result of up-facing or down-facing regions defined in data descriptive of the structure or they may exist as a result of building limitations, e.g., those that result in non-parallel orientation between a building axis and sidewall surfaces of layers. Methods for reducing discontinuities may be applied to all regions or only to selected regions of the structure. Methods may be tailored to improve the accuracy between an original design of the structure and the structure as fabricated or they may simply be used to smooth the discontinuities between layers. Methods may include deposition operations that selectively favor filling of the discontinuities and/or etching operations that selectively favor removal of material from protrusions that define discontinuities.

1 . A method for electrochemically forming a three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered layers of a structural material, comprising: 
 providing a substrate;    forming a layer comprising at least a first material that is electrodeposited on to the substrate;    forming subsequent layers adhered to previously formed layers wherein either the quantization of layers results in unintended interlayer discontinuities or build processes result in interlayer discontinuities; and    wherein prior to completing formation of all layers or after completing formation of all layers, performing at least one operation that results in the reduction of an interlayer discontinuity.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation operates on a plurality of layers simultaneously.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the discontinuity reduction operations including one or more of a chemical etching operation, an electrochemical etching operation, a deposition operation, or a plurality of deposition and etching operations.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation operates on one layer at a time.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation operates on a first deposited material after the first deposited material is deposited to at least the depth of a layer thickness.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation is part of the process of depositing a first material on a given layer.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation deposits the first material in a plurality of operations where a mask size is varied.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation includes an operation that etches into the deposited first material.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the discontinuity reduction operation including a plurality of etching operations using masks of varied size.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of layers are formed wherein N distinct layers geometries are involved, wherein photomasks are used to produce deposition or etching masks and where the number of photomasks used to produce the masks is less than N.  
   
   
       11 . A method for electrochemically forming a three-dimensional structure, comprising: 
 providing a substrate;    forming a layer comprising at least a first material that is electrodeposited on to the substrate;    forming subsequent layers adhered to previously formed layers wherein either the quantization of layers results in unintended interlayer discontinuities or build processes result in interlayer discontinuities; and    wherein prior to completing formation of all layers or after completing formation of all layers, performing at least one operation that results in the reduction of an interlayer discontinuity, and    wherein the layer-by-layer deposition process creates a tool, and    wherein the three-dimensional structure is formed using at least one electrodeposition operation and the tool.