An Experimental Evaluation of an Etching Simulation Model for Photochemical Machining

Photochemical machining can satisfy the large demand coming from the microproducts market. The metal etching technologies lack however a precise control over the micro-geometry of surfaces. Metal etching results from diffusive and kinetic phenomena whose relative importance depends on process parameters. The effects of the chemical kinetics on the etching regime and, consequently, on the surface generated by wet-chemical etching need a thorough investigation. This paper reports an experimental assessment of a 2D simulation model of etching, where also the role of reaction products dynamics is considered. Furthermore an experimental analysis of the process parameters on micro-geometry is reported. (C) 2010 CIRP.