Vacuum Micro-Electroforming Technique for the Production of Void-Free Microcomponent

Pinhole defect in the deposit is one of the ticklers which have not yet been solved fundamentally when micro-electroforming nickel into high-aspect-ratio (HAR) micro-molds. To obtain void-free micro-components, a new micro-electroforming technique, which was carried out under the complex circumstance of vacuum-degassing and temperature-gradient, was developed in this paper. Mechanisms of this micro-electroforming process were introduced using graphic and simulation methods. To investigate the feasibility of the exploited technique, a series of experiments were performed using special equipment developed by authors, followed by the evaluating of surface morphology of nickel micro-electroforms using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Experimental results showed that, comparing with the conventional electroforming practices, a significant reduction in pinhole defects of the samples electroformed by the novel process was achieved.