Micro electrochemical milling

TLDR

In electrochemical machining, increasing depth causes tapering of structures. The paper presents electrochemical machining for micro structures and introduces a disc‑type electrode to reduce tapering. Ultra‑short pulse electrochemical machining confines dissolution to the electrode vicinity, and the disc‑type electrode is employed to mitigate taper. Using this method, 3D micro structures—including a 60 µm‑diameter hemisphere—were fabricated on stainless steel with good surface quality in 0.1 M H₂SO₄.

Abstract

In this paper, electrochemical machining (ECM) for fabricating micro structures is presented. By applying ultra short pulses, dissolution of a workpiece can be restricted to the region very close to an electrode. Using this method, 3D micro structures were machined on stainless steel. Good surface quality of the structures was obtained in the low concentration electrolyte, 0.1 M H2SO4. In ECM, when the machining depth increases, structures taper. To reduce the taper, a disc-type electrode is introduced. By electrochemical milling, various 3D micro structures including a hemisphere with 60 µm diameter were fabricated.