Patent ID: 7250101

Claim:
An electrochemical fabrication process for producing a three-dimensional structure from a plurality of adhered layers, the process comprising: (A) selectively depositing a first material onto a temporary substrate or onto previously deposited material on the temporary substrate to form a portion of a layer and depositing at least a second material to form another portion of the layer, wherein one of the first material or the second material comprises a structural material and the other comprises a sacrificial material, and wherein the depositing of the first material or the second material comprises an electrodeposition operation; (B) forming the plurality of adhered layers such that successive layers are formed adjacent to and adhered to previously formed layers, wherein said forming comprises repeating (A) a plurality of times to form an embedded structure; (C) after formation of the plurality of adhered layers, attaching a structural substrate comprising a dielectric material to at least a portion of a layer of the embedded structure and separating the temporary substrate from the embedded structure; and (D) after attaching the structural substrate, removing at least a portion of the sacrificial material from multiple layers and from the embedded structure to release the three-dimensional structure.