Experimental study on fabrication of large-scale micro cylinders array by mask jet electrochemical deposition

The mask jet electrochemical deposition was used to deposit the large-scale micro cylinders array in this study. The effect of the pulse peak current density, pulse frequency, pulse duty cycle, injection pressure and scanning speed on the deposition characteristics (i.e. deposition height, surface roughness and surface quality of micro cylinders) have been investigated. The experiment results showed that the mean height and the surface roughness of micro cylinders increased form the peak current density. Moreover, due to a high pulse frequency provided a shorter pulse on-time, and significantly facilitating the renewal of the ion concentration in the electroforming fluid. A higher pulse frequency and larger duty cycle provide a better deposition characteristic. The injection pressure was found to have a significant effect on the height, the surface roughness and surface appearance of micro cylinders. Furthermore, when using higher scanning speed, the crystalline particles of the cast layer decrease, significantly decreasing the surface roughness. Based on discussed, the pulse current density of 12 A/dm 2 , a pulse frequency of 3000 Hz, a pulse duty cycle of 30%, a jet inlet pressure of 80 kPa, a scanning speed of 8 mm/s and a number of scans of 100 is optimal parameters. Finally, by using these parameters, a large-area micro cylindrical array structures with a height of 22.53±2.46 µm and diameter of 205±3.21 µm were successfully fabricated. It can be concluded that the mask jet electrochemical deposition is a simple method to realize the electrode-position of large-area array structures.