Methods of fabricating housing structures and micromachines incorporating such structures

A method of forming a housing structure for a micromachine, comprising:

• providing a micromachine having at least one movable component extending from an exterior thereof;
• forming at least one layer of polymerized photopolymer;
• placing said micromachine on at least a portion of said at least one layer of polymerized photopolymer;
• forming a border comprising at least one additional layer of polymerized photopolymer about a periphery of said micromachine to the exclusion of a protrusion beyond said border of said at least one movable component;
• and
• forming at least another additional layer of polymerized photopolymer proximate to but spaced from said micromachine.

A method of constructing a housing structure for a micromachine having at least one movable element protruding therefrom, said method comprising:

• (a) providing at least one micromachine having at least one movable element protruding therefrom;
• (b) providing a stereolithography apparatus having a reservoir for holding a liquid photopolymer material, a support platform movable vertically in said liquid photopolymer material, and a laser source for generating a laser beam scannable over said support platform under control of a computer program;
• (c) submerging said support platform with said at least one micromachine in said liquid photopolymer material to form a thin film thereof on said support platform;
• (d) scanning said laser beam over selected portions of said thin film adjacent said at least one micromachine to polymerize the thin film in said selected portions to at least a semisolid state;
• and
• (e) iterating steps (c) and (d) to produce a stack of superimposed, contiguous, mutually adhered, at least semisolid layers of polymeric material, wherein said scanning excludes portions of said thin film corresponding to a location of at least one opening in at least one layer of said stack of at least semisolid layers of polymeric material through which said at least one movable element protrudes and over which at least one opening another at least semisolid layer of polymeric material extends to define an upper boundary therefor.

A method for fabricating a micromachine, comprising:

• forming a first portion of a housing structure;
• placing a first preformed machine element of a micromachine on the first portion of the housing structure;
• forming a second portion of the housing structure adjacent the first machine element of the micromachine;
• placing a second preformed machine element of the micromachine in operably coupled relationship to the first machine element of the micromachine;
• and
• forming at least a third portion of the housing structure to encompass at least portions of the first and second machine elements.