Research progress of electrochemical three-dimensional micro-deposition technology

Abstract

Electrochemical deposition is a nontraditional machining process for preparation of metal-based materials and manufacture of metalbased components by stacking layer by layer. It has a great potential as an alternative for metal addititive micromanufacturing because of its some advantages that include widely available materials, low operating temperature, flexible operation, ease of shape and properties control and less limitation in article sizes. In this paper, we mainly introduce several representative electrochemical deposition processes for fabricating three-dimensional metal microstructures and microparts, including through-mask electroplating, instant masking, electrochemical fabrication (EFAB), localized electrodeposition, jet electrochemical deposition, electrochemical printing, meniscus-confined 3D electrodeposition, electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy etc., and emphasize each process’s working principle, key technologies, advantages and disadvantages, and main problems and challenges. Finally, the future development trends and research focuses of this field are discussed.