TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ELECTRICAL POWER AND ENERGY - Preferred Components: The photo-sensitive material may be a UV-curable material and the fuel cell is made by UV-irradiating across a deposition height of the photo-sensitive material. The photo-sensitive material may be a proton-curable material and the shaped layer has a number of contour levels serially patterned across a deposition height of the shaped layer and simultaneously developed across the deposition height. The shaped layer provides a boundary structure of a vacant passage for conductance of a fluid. A bottom of the vacant passage is provided by a substrate. The boundary structure is a side wall of the vacant passage. The vacant passage is a distribution channel system including interdigitated supply finger channels and exhaust finger channels. A top of the vacant passage is provided by massively parallel micro channels bonded by an adhesive to a top of the boundary structure for directing the fluid along a diffusion layer on top of the massively parallel micro channels. The shaped layer is a backing layer having a natural curvature between adhesive bonding areas of the backing layer. The curvature is defined in combination with an elasticity of the backing layer such that the backing layer exerts an equal pressure against adhesion-free areas of a planar layer when bonded to the backing layer. The adhesion-free areas are flanked by bonding areas along which the backing layer is bonded to the planar layer. The shaped layer includes a proton insulation structure positioned between adjacent cell elements of the fuel cell across a material separation of an electrolyte carrier membrane. A perforated metal foil between the boundary structure and a diffusion layer is bonded to the top of the boundary structure via an adhesive. It operates as current collector. A board structure has a number of inlet holes and outlet holes protruding directing the fluid through an adjacent diffusion layer in regions between the inlet holes and the outlet holes. The board structure is a substrate for fabricating the shaped layer with a supply channel manifold and an exhaust channel manifold on the bottom of the board structure. It has first and second via holes such that a fluid may be conducted from the supply channels via the first via holes towards an adjacent diffusion layer and such that the fluid may be conducted from the diffusion layer via the second via holes towards the exhaust channels. The first and second via holes are electrically conductive for transmitting a collected current from a first side of the board structure adjacent the diffusion layer to a second side of the board structure adjacent at least one of the manifolds. A metal layer is deposited at least on one of the top and bottom of the board structure. The metal layer is in conductive communication with at least one of the first via holes and the second via holes for transmitting the collected current onto at least one of the first via holes and the second via holes. The metal layer is a cladding layer that is corrosion resistively coated. The metal layer may be a sputtered layer or an electroplated layer.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Materials: The substrate is made of semi-rigid polyimide or fiber-reinforced epoxy. The adhesive is a fiber-reinforced adhesive. The shaped layer is made of MicroChem SU8 (photo-sensitive epoxy resin) material.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - METALLURGY - Preferred Material: The cladding layer is copper.