Novel 3D manufacturing method combining microelectrial discharge machining and electrochemical polishing

作者：Richter Claudia^*; Krah Thomas; Buettgenbach Stephanus

来源：Microsystem Technologies, 2012, 18(7-8): 1109-1118.

DOI：10.1007/s00542-012-1452-x

This paper reports on the potential of microelectrical discharge machining (mu EDM) as an innovative method for the fabrication of 3D microdevices. To demonstrate the wide capabilities of mu EDM two different microsystems-a microfluidic device for the dispersion of nanoparticles and a star probe for microcoordinate metrology-are presented. To gain optimized process conditions as well as a high surface quality an adequate adaption of the single erosion parameters such as energy, pulse frequency and spark gap has to be carried out and is discussed below. Thus, a surface roughness of R-a = 80 nm is achieved at the channel bottom. The fabricated stylus elements for the star probe have sphere diameters of 40-200 mu m. For further surface quality enhancement a subsequent electrochemical polishing step is investigated. In case of the dispersion micromodule a combined process chain of mu EDM-milling and electropolishing has reached a surface improvement above 70%.

• 出版日期2012-8