Research advances of electrochemical micro/nanofabrication based on confined etchant layer technique
2017
Compared with mechanical machining, ECM has several advantages,
such as avoiding tool wear, none thermal or mechanical stress on machining
surfaces, as well as high removal rate. Moreover, ECM is capable of
making complex three-dimensional structures and is appropriate for
flexible, fragile, or fissile materials even materials harder than
the machining tool. Thus, ECM has been widely used for various industrial
applications in the fields of aerospace, automobiles, electronics,
etc. ECM methods can be classified usually as electrolytic machining
based on anodic dissolution and electroforming based on cathodic deposition
of metallic materials. Recently, high technology industry, such as
ultralarge scale integration (ULSI) circuits, microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), miniaturized total analysis systems (μ-TAS)
and precision optics, has developed more and more rapidly, where miniaturization
and integration of functional components are becoming significant.
Nowadays, the feature size of interconnectors in ULSI circuits has
been down to 20 nanometers, predicted by Moore’s law. Confined
etchant layer technique (CELT) was proposed in 1992 to fabricate three-dimensional
micro- and nanostructures (3D-MNS) on different metals and semiconductors,
which has been developed an effective machining method with independent
intellectual property rights. Generally, there are three procedures
in CELT: (1) generating the etchant on the surface of the tool electrode
by electrochemical or photoelectrochemical reactions; (2) confining
the etchant in a depleted layer with a thickness of micro- or nanometer
scale; (3) etching process when the tool electrode is fed to the workpiece,
which applicable for 1D milling, 2D polishing, and 3D microfabrication
with an accuracy at micro or nanometer scale. External physical-field
modulations have recently been introduced into CELT to improve its
machining precision. In this review, the advances of CELT in principles,
instruments and applications will be addressed as well as the prospects.
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