Electrochemical Micromachining of Titanium and Its Alloys

Abstract

Miniaturization has covered every area of modern world. Micromachining is one of the key technologies that can enable the realization of almost all requirements of the microproducts and related domain. However, materials which can micromachined easily and used in present day Microsystems, MEMS and microengineering applications have some limitations such as low strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Titanium is one of the potential material and arising as alternative to the conventional MEMS materials particularly silicon or silicon based materials or glass. Titanium is known as super metal due to its high strength to weight ratio, excellent corrosion resistance and superior biocompatibility. This chapter highlights the challenges in micromachining of titanium and its alloys as well as potential use of electrochemical micromachining (EMM) technique for micromachining of titanium. Utilization of masked i.e. TMEMM as well as maskless electrochemical micromachining techniques for generation of various microfeatures on titanium has been presented in this chapter. Effect of various EMM process parameters on machining accuracy of microfeatures of titanium as well as most suitable EMM process parameters for fabrication of various complex microfeatures on titanium has also been discussed. This chapter provides comprehensive information on electrochemical micromachining of titanium and its prospective applications in the area of MEMS, Bio-MEMS and microengineering fields.