Improvement of thickness deposition uniformity in nickel electroforming for micro mold inserts

Abstract

Thickness deposition is a crucial issue on the application of electroformed micro mold inserts. Edge concentration effect is the main source of the non-uniformity. The techniques of adopting a non-conducting shield, a secondary electrode and a movable cathode were explored to improve the thickness deposition uniformity during the nickel electroforming process. Regarding these techniques, a micro electroforming system with a movable cathode was particularly developed. The thickness variation of a 16 mm×16 mm electroformed sample decreased respectively from 150% to 35%, 12% and 18% by these three techniques. Combining these validated methods, anickelmold insert for microlens array was electroformed with satisfactory mechanical properties and high replication precision. It could be applied to the following injection molding process.