• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.407-412
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• 2005

For micro electrochemical machining (ECM), tool electrodes with various sizes and shapes are necessary. In this paper, tool electrodes were fabricated by micro electrical discharge machining (EDM). Electrode material is tungsten carbide which has high rigidity and good conductivity for micro electrochemical machining. Disk-type and sphere-type electrodes were fabricated to prevent taper shape of side walls or to produce spherical features. Various 3D micro structures were fabricated by electrochemical milling with developed electrodes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1281-1284
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• 2005

In the micro electrochemical machining (ECM), unfavorable oxide/passive layer formation and overall corrosion of electrodes must be prevented. Generally, the stainless steel electrode corrodes, passivates or dissolves in the electrochemical cell according to the electrode potential. Therefore, the electrode must maintain stable potential. The stable electrode potentials of tool and workpiece were determined with the potentiodynamic polarization test and verified experimentally from the point of machining stability and machined surface quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.109-117
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• 2003

With development of high advanced technologies and skills, micro machining techniques also are being more functional and smaller. Some of the recently developed micro machining technologies are micro drilling, micro EDM, WEDG, LBM, micro milling, micro UVM etc. In these micro machining techniques, Micro -EDM is generally used for machining micro holes, pockets, and micro structures in difficult-cut-materials. For machining micro structures, first of all, tool electrode should be fabricated by WEDG process. In micro-EDM, parameters such as peak current, pulse width, duration time are very important to fabricate the tool electrode and micro structures. Developed experimental equipments are composed of RLC circuit with PWM. In this paper, using developed micro EDM machine, the characteristics of micro electro discharge machining are investigated at micro holes, slot, and pocket machining etc. Also the trends of tool wear are investigated in case of hole and slot machining.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.285-291
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• 2017

Micro-needles are used as transferring devices for sampling of tiny constitute substances from biological bodies. Typically, nickel is used as a coating to improve the rigidity of micro-needles. This study introduces the methodology to manufacture a WC needle with very high hardness and toughness. Micro-EDM technology was used to manufacture micro-needles with holes $130{\mu}m$ in diameter and $2300{\mu}m$ in length. A micro-needle was aligned to the micro-EDM electrode using a custom two degree-of-freedom alignment system. A three-step manufacturing technique was developed to drill a micro-hole using a WC electrode. In the first process, an electrode $105{\mu}m$ in diameter was used to make a hole. Electrodes of 90 and $105{\mu}m$ diameters were used in the second and third process, respectively. Consequently, a WC micro-needle with an inner hole of $135{\mu}m$ diameter, length of $2300{\mu}m$, and outer diameter of $300{\mu}m$ was developed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2007

In this paper, mesoporous Pt on micro pillars Pt electrode is newly designed, fabricated, and characterized on silicon substrate for non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor micro-chip integrated with CMOS readout circuitry. The fabricated micro/nano Pt electrode has cylindrical hexangular arrayed nano Pt pores with a diameter of 3.2 nm which is formed on top of the micro pillars Pt electrode with approximately $6{\mu}m$ in diameter, $6{\mu}m$ in space, and $50{\mu}m$ in height. The measured current responses of the fabricated plane Pt, mesoporous Pt, and mesoporous Pt on the micro pillar Pt electrodes are approximately $9.9nA/mm^2,\;6.72{\mu}A/mm^2,\;and\;7.67{\mu}A/mm^2$ in 10mM glucose solution with 0.1M phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution, respectively. In addition, the measured current responses of the fabricated plane Pt, mesoporous Pt, and mesoporous Pt on the micro pillar Pt electrodes are approximately $0.15{\mu}A/mm^2,\;0.56{\mu}A/mm^2,\;and\;0.74{\mu}A/mm^2$ in 0.1mM ascorbic acid (AA) solution with 0.1M phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution, respectively. This experimental results show that the proposed micro/nano Pt electrode is highly sensitive and promising for CMOS integrated non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor applications. Since the micro-pillar Pt electrode can also be utilized with a micro-fluidic mixer in the sensor chip, the sensor chip can be much smaller, cheaper, and easier to be fabricated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.685-688
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• 2005

In the micro electrochemical machining (MECM) using ultra short pulses, the machining rate is closely related to the tool electrode area. The machining rate varies according to the machining depth or the immersion depth. When using insulated tool electrodes, those depths do not matter. In addition, micro structures with high machining depth can be fabricated because the machining characteristics do not vary with the machining depth. Another advantage of insulated electrodes is prevention of taper shape. Micro structures with high machining depth or high aspect ratio were fabricated using insulated tool electrodes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.42-49
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• 2007

When micro holes are machined by EDM, machining characteristics of machined holes are changed according to the machining conditions. Typical machining conditions are the kind of dielectric fluids, capacitance and ultrasonic vibrations. They influence electrode wear, machining time, radial clearance and taper angle. In this paper, machined holes whose depths are 300, 500, $1000\;{\mu}m$ are observed for each machining conditions. Using deionized water as a dielectric fluid makes electrode wear small, machining time short, radial clearance large and taper angle small. High capacitance makes electrode wear high. Ultrasonic vibrations make electrode wear large, machining time short, radial clearance small and taper angle small. From the results of experiments, the optimal machining conditions were obtained to machine highly qualified micro holes.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.9
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• pp.1632-1637
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• 2010

A micro-water-nozzle, as one of a cooling means of micro-electronic devices, has been proposed and investigated. The I-V characteristics of the micro-water-nozzle and effect of applied voltage on the meniscus formation and deformation and ejection processes of de-ionized water on the micro-water-nozzle tip have been investigated. The water ejection processes, such as a drop formation, a drop deformation, a dripping, a cone jet, and an atomization, were taken place on the micro-water-nozzle tip by the electrohydrodynamic forces acted by the DC and AC high voltages applied on the meniscus of the micro-water-nozzle tip. The I-V characteristics of the micro-water-nozzle-to-plate electrode system were different from that of the same metal-point electrode system, due to the meniscus formation and water droplet ejection at the nozzle tip. The positive and negative DC and AC high voltages showed the water droplets ejection, the ejection rates of 1.8, 1.5 and 1.2 g/h respectively, which, however, showed that the proposed micro-water-nozzle-to-plate electrode system could be used as one of an effective pumping means.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.5-11
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• 2005

Among the micro machining techniques, micro EDM is generally used for machining micro holes, pockets, and micro structures on difficult-cut-materials. Micro EDM parameters such as applied voltage, capacitance, peak current, pulse width, duration time are very important to fabricate the tool electrode and produce the micro structures. Developed micro EDM machine is composed of a 3-axis driving system and RC circuit equipped with pulse generator. In this paper, using micro EDM machine, the characteristics of micro EDM process are investigated and it is applied to micro holes, slots, and pockets machining. Through experiments, relations between machined surface and voltages and between MRR and feedrate are investigated. Also the trends of tool wear are investigated in case of hole and slot machining.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.499-500
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• 2006

The electrode wear in micro-EDM significantly deteriorates the machining accuracy. In this regard, electrode wear needs to be compensated in-process to improve the product quality. Therefore, there are substantial amount of research about electrode wear. In this study a control method for micro-EDM using discharge pulse counting is proposed. The method is based on the assumption that the removed workpiece volume is proportional to the number of discharge pulses, which is verified from experimental results analyzing geometrically machined volume according to various number of discharges. Especially, the method has an advantage that electrode wear does not need to be concerned. The proposed method is implemented to an actual micro-EDM system using high speed data acquisition board, simple counting algorithm with 3 axis motion system. As a result, it is demonstrated that the volume of hole machined by EDM drilling can be accurately estimated using the number of discharge pulses. In EDM milling process a micro groove without depth variation caused by electrode wear could be machined using the developed control method. Consequently, it is shown that machining accuracy in drilling and milling processes can be improved by using process control based on the number of discharge pulses.