Patent ID: 7531077

Claim:
A fabrication process for forming a multi-material, multi-layer three-dimensional probe structure, comprising: (a) forming and adhering a multi-material layer to a previously formed layer to a substrate; (b) repeating the forming and adhering operation of (a) to build up a three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered multi-material layers each having a thickness, wherein the formation of each of a plurality of layers, comprises: (i) deposition of at least one sacrificial material; (ii) deposition of at least two structural materials, at least one of which encapsulates the other to formed an encapsulated structural material bounded by an encapsulating structural material and wherein the encapsulated structural material is deposited to have a deposition thickness less than the layer thickness; and (iii) planarization of the at least one sacrificial material and at least one of the at least two structural materials to set the thickness of the multi-material layer such that the encapsulated material is bounded on the sides and from above by the encapsulating material; (c) after formation of a plurality of layers, separating at least a portion of the sacrificial material on a plurality of layers from the structural materials on those layers to reveal the multi-material multi-layer three-dimensional probe structure formed from the at least two structural materials.