Production of movable metallic microstructures by aligned hot embossing and reactive ion etching

Hot embossing is an inexpensive method for the reproduction of microstructures. It has matured during the last few years from a pure laboratory method to an industrially applicable process. As an example, the technology for the production of movable metallic microstructures by aligned to embossing and reactive ion etching is presented, which has been developed at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe/IMT.