Experimental Research on Microelectroforming with Ultrasonic Agitation

Ming, Pingmei; Zhu, Daiyin; Hu, Yang; Zeng, Yong

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.375-376.253

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…So far, several methods have been used to improve the thickness uniformity, mostly including optimizing electroforming parameters [8], adding additives [9], using pulse or reverse-pulse current [10], using a copying anode [11], using an assistance electrode and shield [1,12,13], ultrasonic electrodepositing [14,15] and megasonic agitation [5]. The shape of the cathode depends on the photoresist mold, which is critical to the quality of the electroformed structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Thickness Uniformity of Micro Gear by Multi-Step, Self-Aligned Lithography and Electroforming

et al. 2023

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The thickness nonuniformity of an electroformed layer is a bottleneck problem for electroformed micro metal devices. In this paper, a new fabrication method is proposed to improve the thickness uniformity of micro gear, which is the key element of various microdevices. The effect of the thickness of the photoresist on the uniformity was studied by simulation analysis, which showed that as the thickness of the photoresist increased, the thickness nonuniformity of the electroformed gear should decrease due to the reduced edge effect of the current density. Differently from the traditional method performed by one-step front lithography and electroforming, multi-step, self-aligned lithography and electroforming are used to fabricate micro gear structures in proposed method, which intermittently keeps the thickness of photoresist from decreasing during processes of alternate lithography and electroforming. The experimental results show that the thickness uniformity of micro gear fabricated by the proposed method was improved by 45.7% compared with that fabricated by the traditional method. Meanwhile, the roughness of the middle region of the gear structure was reduced by 17.4%.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Thickness Uniformity of Micro Gear by Multi-Step, Self-Aligned Lithography and Electroforming

et al. 2023

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“…Currently, there are several methods to improve uniformity, including optimizing electrodeposition process parameters [ 9 ], adding additives [ 10 ], using pulse or reverse-pulse currents [ 11 ], setting auxiliary cathodes [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], adding an insulating shield [ 15 ], using auxiliary anodes [ 16 ], ultrasonic electrodepositing [ 17 , 18 ] and megasonic agitation [ 1 ]. Using auxiliary cathodes is an effective way to decrease the edge effect of a current in the micro electroforming process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Effect of Layered Auxiliary Cathode on Thickness Uniformity in Micro Electroforming Process

et al. 2023

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Thickness nonuniformity is a bottleneck in the micro electroforming process of micro-metal devices. In this paper, a new method of fabricating a layered auxiliary cathode is proposed to improve the thickness uniformity of a micro-electroforming layer. In order to analyze the general applicability of the proposed method, four basic microstructures, namely circular, square, regular triangular, and regular hexagonal were used to study the effect of a layered auxiliary cathode on thickness uniformity through simulation and experimentation. The simulation results showed that with the help of the proposed auxiliary cathode, the thickness nonuniformity of four microstructures should decrease due to the reduced edge effect of the current density. The experimental results showed that the thickness uniformity of four microstructures fabricated via the proposed method was improved by 190.63%, 116.74%, 80.43%, and 164.30% compared to that fabricated via the traditional method, respectively. Meanwhile, the micro-gear was fabricated and the nonuniformity was reduced by 101.15% using the proposed method.

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“…At present, the common methods of improving the thickness uniformity include adding additive [14], using pulse-reversed current [15], optimizing electroforming parameters [16], moving cathode and rotating disk cathode [17,18]. For further improvement, the ultrasonic agitation is used in the micro electroforming and is an effective way to improve the thickness uniformity [19,20]. But for longtime electroforming, the high temperature and pressure caused by ultrasonic cavitation may destroy the photoresist structures [21], which limits the application of ultrasonic electroforming to a certain extent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of metal microfluidic chip mold with coplanar auxiliary cathode in the electroforming process

Zhao

Wei

et al. 2018

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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Thickness nonuniformity is one of the prominent problems in the electroforming process of the metal microfluidic chip mold, which decreases the dimensional accuracy of the mold, and has a direct influence on the usability of the microfluidic chip. A novel method of auxiliary cathode for improving the thickness uniformity of electroformed mold is presented in this paper. Compared with the traditional method of the auxiliary cathode, a coplanar auxiliary cathode similar to the local microstructure of mold is used to fabricate the electroformed mold, and the thickness uniformity of electroformed mold is improved obviously. In addition, in order to determine the dimensions and placement of the auxiliary cathode, the computer-aided analysis is performed to simulate electroforming process. The simulated results show that with the help of a specially designed auxiliary cathode, the thickness uniformity is improved by about 53.2% compared with the result without the auxiliary cathode. Finally, based on the simulation, a microfluidic chip mold is fabricated by micro electroforming with the coplanar auxiliary cathode. The result shows that the thickness uniformity of the mold is improved by about 49.1%, which is in good agreement with the simulation result.

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Experimental Research on Microelectroforming with Ultrasonic Agitation

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Improving the Thickness Uniformity of Micro Gear by Multi-Step, Self-Aligned Lithography and Electroforming

Improving the Thickness Uniformity of Micro Gear by Multi-Step, Self-Aligned Lithography and Electroforming

An Effect of Layered Auxiliary Cathode on Thickness Uniformity in Micro Electroforming Process

Fabrication of metal microfluidic chip mold with coplanar auxiliary cathode in the electroforming process

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