Magnetic force-assisted electrolytic machining for polycrystalline silicon

This study aims at improving the surface quality of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) after wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) by electrolytic machining (EM) assisted with magnetic force. The machining parameters are designed with an L18 orthogonal array according to the Taguchi method. The experiment data are then analyzed with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the effect of significant factors on the characteristics of magnetic force-assisted (MFA) EM. It is proved in this study that both the material removal and surface roughness achieved by MFA-EM are better than those obtained by standard EM. A group of significant factors and the optimum combinations of machining parameters are obtained from the ANOVA results. The contribution of adding magnetic force to EM is examined in this study to establish a composite EM technique with high efficiency and quality.