Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) for MEMS: processes and applications

In this paper we discuss newly developed microfabrication methods for liquid crystal polymer (LCP). LCP is a thermoplastic polymer made of aligned molecule chains with crystal-like spatial regularity. It exhibits unique electrical, physical and chemical properties, making it suitable for certain MEMS applications. MEMS-compatible fabrication processes such as metallization, plasma bulk etching and thermal bonding have been developed in our work. We demonstrated two micro sensor applications involving the LCP material.