Technology and Applications

We have demonstrated electrochemical printing of copper, nickel, platinum, and gold at resolutions between 500 and 1000 dpi.

The figure above shows a UW Husky Logo drawing where the red regions represent a 2.0 second dwell time and the black regions represent a 1.0 second dwell time. A copper on gold husky logo pattern is shown in real size compared to a US Quarter. The topography is shown in the upper right. Note the thicker regions in the topography map correspond to the 2.0 s dwell time regions in the drawing.

The local topography is easily controlled by specifying operating conditions at each location of the build. In the figure to the right, thicker regions of the pattern correspond to 2.0 s dwell time locations and thinner regions correspond to 1.0 s dwell time locations.

The figure above is an array of copper-nickel microdots. The composition of each dot is controlled by adjusting the applied current and flowrate. Pure copper, upper right, is obtained at low current and high flowrate; a nickel rich deposit (lower left) is obtained at low flow and high current.

In EcP, material composition is easily controlled in the xy direction by adjusting the current and/or flowrate. This is demonstrated in the copper nickel microdot array shown to the right.