Manufacture of hemi-spherical resonators using printable fused silica glass

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new method for manufacturing millimeter-sized three-dimensional (3D) hemi-spherical resonators (HSRs) using a printable fused silica (FS) glass suspension. Our manufacturing process involves a combination of 3D printing, replication molding and casting steps to produce a complex FS-based HSR geometry. As proof of concept, we made a 9.5 mm-diameter and 0.5mm-thick resonator that was coated with thin films of chromium and gold ($132 nm$). We tested the resonator using electrostatic actuation and detection methods and were able to detect a single resonance mode at 6.74 kHz with an experimental quality factor of approximately 1,540. This manufacturing method is easy to use and yields high results (greater than 95%), but it does require further optimization to improve device performance due to relatively high surface roughness.