Fast Fabrication of Complex Surficial Micro-Features Using Sequential Lithography and Jet Electrochemical Machining

This paper presents fabrication of complex surficial micro-features employing a cross-innovative hybrid process inspired from lithography and Jet-ECM. The process is referred here as mask electrolyte jet machining (MEJM). MEJM is a non-contact machining process which combines high resolution of lithography and greater flexibility of Jet-ECM. It is a non-contact process which can fabricate variety of microstructures on difficult-to-machine materials without need of expensive tooling. The presented work demonstrates the process performance of this technology by statistical analysis and multivariate kernel density estimation (KDE) based on probabilistic density function. Micro-letters are fabricated as an example of complex surficial structure comprising of multiple intersecting, straight and curved grooves. The processing response is characterized in terms of geometrical size, similarity ratio, and cumulative shape deviation. Experimental results demonstrated that micro letters with good repeatability (minimum SD of shape error ratio 0.297%) and shape accuracy (minimum shape error of 0.039%) can be fabricated with this technology. The results suggest MEJM could be a promising technology for batch manufacturing of surface microstructures with high productivity.