Hard and soft magnetic materials for electromagnetic microactuators

An important aspect of the development of electromagnetic microactuators is the search for suitable materials as well as the development of the respective deposition and patterning processes. Within the Collaborative Research Center 516 “Design and Fabrication of Active Microsystems”, it is the task of the subproject B1 “fabrication of magnetic thin films for electromagnetic microactuators” to perform these investigations. The materials of interest can be divided into two groups: hard magnetic materials and soft magnetic materials. Materials with optimized properties and fabrication processes have been developed within both groups. An example is Samarium–Cobalt (SmCo), which can either be deposited using magnetron sputtering as Sm 2 Co 17 with a very high energy product or in the SmCo 5 phase using gas flow sputtering with very high deposition rates. In the area of soft magnetic materials, investigations on Nickel-Iron (NiFe) especially NiFe81/19 were followed by the evaluation of NiFe45/55, which features a higher saturation flux density B s and relative permeability μ r . Furthermore, current investigations focus on Cobalt-Iron (CoFe) and its further increased saturation flux density B s and relative permeability μ r . Current tasks include the stabilization of the fabrication processes to achieve good material properties (i.e. electroplating of CoFe) or a shortening (e.g. by using heated substrates during deposition) by using process alternative not used so far. Another topic is the integration into fabrication processes, i.e. the investigation of process stability and compatibility.