Fabrication of reaction-sintered Si3N4 ceramic microrotors

This paper introduces a novel process for the microfabrication of Si3N4 ceramic microcomponents, which mainly consists of pre-sintering of Si powder compacts, micromachining of pre-sintered Si performs and reaction sintering of the micromachined Si performs. The present process has its high potential for Si3N4 3-dimensional microfabrication because it combines the machinablity of pre-sintered Si powder compacts and near-net shaping characteristic of Si3N4 reaction sintering. Using this process, we fabricated a reaction-sintered Si3N4 ceramic microturbine rotor that has a 5mm diameter, 1.2mm thickness, and whose blades are as thin as 70mum.