Fabricating High Aspect Ratio Amorphous Alloys Microgrooves by Using Periodically Thinning Jet Electrochemical...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Surface Engineering

Background:

• Jet electrochemical milling (JECM) is suitable for fabricating fine features in sensitive metallic materials.
• Conventional JECM faces limitations like overcut and restricted aspect ratio machining.
• There is a need for improved JECM techniques for high-precision microstructuring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate the periodically thinning jet electrochemical milling (PT-JECM) method.
• To address the limitations of conventional JECM in microgroove and slit fabrication.
• To enable precision machining of high aspect ratio structures.

Main Methods:

• The proposed PT-JECM method involves initial shallow groove generation with the original nozzle diameter.
• Subsequent milling passes utilize progressively smaller nozzle diameters tailored to the preformed groove.
• Comparative analysis was conducted against traditional JECM techniques.

Main Results:

• PT-JECM significantly enhanced the etching factor by 128% (from 1.896 to 4.318).
• The slot width increase was markedly reduced from 275 μm to 1 μm.
• The aspect ratio improved by 63% (from 0.51 to 0.83).

Conclusions:

• PT-JECM overcomes the limitations of conventional JECM for microfabrication.
• The method enables the precision machining of microstructures with high aspect ratios.
• PT-JECM offers superior control over groove dimensions and accuracy for delicate materials.