Manipulation of Thin Metallic Wires by Joule Heat Joining

Various kinds of metallic thin wires are expected to be key elements in future NEMS or MEMS due to their excellent physical properties and geometrical merits. However, it is not so easy task to manipulate thin wires for many kinds of application nowadays. We report manipulation techniques based on weld-joining on a substrate by Joule heating. The Pt thin wires with the diameter of about 625 nm were welded onto In wires as substrates. The Pt wires on the In substrate were taken for the three-point bending test and potential drop test for determining their mechanical and electrical properties. Moreover, based on the manipulation technique, by twisting the Pt thin wire around a core wire, simply-supported micro-coils on electrode chips were successfully fabricated, and their utility as electromagnetic actuators was realized.