Microfabrication facts for kids

Synthetic detail of a micromanufactured integrated circuit through four layers of planarized copper interconnect, down to the polysilicon (pink), wells (greyish) and substrate (green)

Microfabrication is making things which are very small. The earliest micromanufacturing was used to make the different parts of a computer circuit board.

Fields of use

Microfabricated devices include:

• Fabrication of integrated circuits (“microchips”) (see semiconductor manufacturing)
• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), MOEMS,
• microfluidic devices (ink jet print heads)
• solar cells
• Flat Panel Displays (see AMLCD and Thin Film Transistor)
• Sensors (micro-sensors) (biosensors, nanosensors)
• PowerMEMSs, fuel cells, energy harvesters/scavengers

See also

In Spanish: Microfabricación para niños