Authors: U Reisgen S Scheik
Publish Date: 2008/05/10
Volume: 14, Issue: 12, Pages: 1895-1901
Abstract
In comparison with competitive joining methods the joining technology “adhesive bonding” provides advantages in the lowstress joining of similar and dissimilar material combinations As far as the microrange is concerned this technology is particularly suitable for the joining of hybrid microsystems made of different materials and featuring complex geometries The variety of available adhesives allows the adaptation of the process to the specific joining task If the technology is transferred from the macrorange to the microrange the dispensing and application of the requested minimal adhesive volumes is one of the fundamental challenges The process limits of nowadaysused microdispensing systems are characterised by the minimally dispensable adhesive volume and also by the flexibility with regard to the applicable adhesives and dispensable layout The objective of the research work which is specified in this paper is the expansion of the process limits up to smaller volumes and also the guarantee of flexible handling and a highprocess stability This has been the motivation for the Welding and Joining Institute of the RWTH Aachen to develop a microdispensing unit for spot and linear adhesive application The unit comprises a positivedisplacement dispensing system with integrated adhesive tempering process gas supply and process optics A reproducible dispensing process requires the adhesive reservoir to be absolutely free from gas For this reason a oneway system has been developed which allows degasification before the actual dispensing process takes place Different degasification principles have in this connection been tested with regard to their achievement potential The oneway system further reduces expenditure for cleaning maintaining and settingup of the unit The unit allows the determination of the important parameters influencing the line dispensing of unfilled adhesives with a line width of 50 μmThe authors wish to express their thanks to the German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their support of the research works within the scope of the Collaborative Research Centre Sonderforschungsbereich 440 “Assembly of hybrid micro systems”
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