Abstract This study reports on the first patterning method based on micro-electro-discharge machining (μEDM) that uses microfluidic electrodes in a liquid form. This novel method is developed to address a variety of problems associated with electrode wear, which is one of the most fundamental issues with μEDM technology. During the machining process, a liquid electrode is continuously supplied to a metallic micro capillary nozzle to eliminate the impact of its “wear” or liquid consumption on the removal process. Experiments show that Galinstan, a non-toxic liquid alloy, can be used as the electrode material to create discharge pulses and perform microscale removal on the samples. Controlled discharge generation and scanning-mode arbitrary patterning are experimentally demonstrated using the microfluidic Galinstan electrodes. The process is evaluated with varying discharge conditions to reveal the dependence of the patterned geometry on the parameters. It is also shown that a Parylene C coating is effective for protecting the nozzle from discharging. The elemental analysis of the processed samples indicates that the process does not cause detectable Galinstan contamination on the patterned surfaces.

中文翻译：

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液相合金作为微流体电极用于微放电图案

摘要 本研究报告了基于微放电加工 (μEDM) 的第一种图案化方法，该方法使用液体形式的微流体电极。这种新颖的方法旨在解决与电极磨损相关的各种问题，这是 μEDM 技术最基本的问题之一。在加工过程中，液体电极不断供应到金属微毛细管喷嘴，以消除其“磨损”或液体消耗对去除过程的影响。实验表明，Galinstan 是一种无毒的液态合金，可用作电极材料来产生放电脉冲并对样品进行微尺度去除。使用微流体 Galinstan 电极通过实验证明了受控放电生成和扫描模式任意图案化。该过程在不同的放电条件下进行评估，以揭示图案几何形状对参数的依赖性。还表明，聚对二甲苯 C 涂层可有效保护喷嘴免于放电。处理过的样品的元素分析表明，该过程不会在图案化表面造成可检测的 Galinstan 污染。