Development of microelectrodes for electrochemical micromachining

Electrochemical micromachining (EMM) has become more and more important in micro machining in recent years. Microelectrode as the tool of EMM is an essential cell in the machining process. In this study, microelectrodes with various end shapes are fabricated by different processing techniques. First, the different end shape forming methods for microelectrode, such as electrochemical etching, single electric discharge, and electrochemical micromachining are investigated. Second, microelectrodes with various end shapes fabricated above are simulated, analyzed, and then used in EMM process. At last, micro holes array with diameter of less than 10 μm, three micro holes with no taper and a 3D microstructure are machined on metallic materials by above three types of microelectrodes.