Title :
Ni Electroforming of Large-area Micro Metal Molds
Author :
Kimura, Tomohiro ; Yamashita, Katsumi ; Kitadani, T. ; Kimura, Te. ; Idei, K. ; Hattori, Toshihiro
Author_Institution :
Hyogo Univ.
Abstract :
This study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of two kinds of organic hardening agents; saccharine sodium and sodium allylsulfonate, for increasing the surface hardness of nickel micro molds to be used in LIGA process. The authors prepared two kinds of plating solutions containing either one of these hardening agents in order to deposit nickel films from these solutions and measure the hardness of these films. As a result, the hardness of nickel-plated films obtained from the sodium allylsulfonate bath exhibited a hardness of 600Hv, which was extremely higher than that of the films obtained from the saccharine sodium bath. Following the above procedure, we heat-treated the nickel-plated films to evaluate their heat resistance. It was observed that the nickel films obtained from the saccharine sodium bath reduced their hardness at 250degC, while the films deposited in the sodium allylsulfonate bath maintained a hardness of 580Hv, demonstrating that these films hardly decrease their harness even when they are placed in a high temperature environment
Keywords :
LIGA; electrodeposition; heat treatment; nickel; sodium compounds; surface hardening; 250 C; LIGA process; Ni electroforming; heat resistance; heat treatment; micro metal molds; nickel films; nickel micro molds; nickel-plated films; organic hardening agents; plating solutions; saccharine sodium bath; sodium allylsulfonate; surface hardness; Fabrication; Lithography; Manufacturing processes; Nickel; Plastics; Polymers; Resistance heating; Semiconductor films; Silicon; Temperature;
Conference_Titel :
Micro-NanoMechatronics and Human Science, 2006 International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Nagoya
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0717-6
Electronic_ISBN :
1-4244-0718-1
DOI :
10.1109/MHS.2006.320246
