Papers by Author: Seong Ho Son

Abstract: The micro gear molds for powder injection molding were fabricated by electroforming process of Ni-Fe alloys. The residual stress at interface between electrodeposit and substrate was important for micro electroforming. Addition of 6 g/L saccharin lowered residual stress from 466.3 MPa up to 32.8 MPa and increase of Fe content resulted in increase of residual stress. Electrodeposition by pulse current decreased residual stress in deposit although Fe content was increased. These results reveal clearly that decrease of residual stress due to pulse current is larger than increase of residual stress due to higher Fe content. The micro electroformed gear molds with 550 μm and 2,525 μm in outer diameter and 400 μm in height were fabricated by micro electroforming and 316L feedstock was injection-molded into micro molds. As a result, it is suggested strongly that micro electroforming is very useful process to manufacture micro mold with high dimensional accuracy for micro PIM.

Abstract: Micro gears with different dimension were fabricated by micro metal injection molding and sintering behavior of the micro gear was investigated. For this, ultraprecision micro molds were prepared by micro electroforming. The sintered micro gears had outer diameter of 470μm and 250 μm, respectively. From the sintering results at 1200°C and 1250°C, the grain growth and the degree of thermal etching depend dominantly on the size of micro part rather than micro feature size. The sintering temperature of micro parts should be lower than that of macro components.

Abstract: The micro parts were fabricated by electroforming process of Fe-Ni alloy. Reaction mechanism of Fe-Ni alloy electrodeposition process was investigated using rotating disk electrode. To clarify the rate determining step, the activation energies of iron and nickel elements were calculated from the Arrhenius plot in the temperature range of 308K~328K. The reaction rate of iron in electrodeposition of Fe-Ni alloy was controlled by chemical reaction at temperature range of 308K~318K, while at range of 318K~328K, it was controlled by mass transport. The reaction rate of nickel was controlled by chemical reaction at 308K~318K and by a mixed mechanism of chemical reaction and mass transfer at 318K~328K. For alloy electroforming of micro gears and a mold for powder injection molding, the mandrels of micro gear (1.7mm in diameter and 600 μm in height) and micro mold (550 μm in diameter and 600 μm in height) were prepared by UV-lithography using SU-8 photoresist. Subsequently, Fe-Ni alloy micro gear mold were electroformed with high hardness (490 Hv) and very good surface roughness (Ra 37.5 nm).

Abstract: The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility of improvement of surface roughness in the wire-EDMed sample by usinig ultrasonic wave and abrasive particle suspension. For this study, two-type ultrasonic polishing methods were used. Removal of the white layers on surface of EDMed sample depended largely on the movement of the suspended particles : the white layers are removed by the impact of free moving particles due to ultrasonic wave, so-called micro chipping mechanism. Even though the surface roughness was improved very slowly, 3-dimensional fine polishing was achieved in wire-EDMed micro PIM molds. These results indicated that micro polishing by ultrasonic wave using suspension is applicable to improvement of surface roughness of micro parts with 3-dimensional complex shape.

Abstract: In this work, in-mold rheology curves were generated by injection molding machine and the effects of feedstock and mold dimension on in-mold rheology curve were studied. The rheology within mold in µMIM process depends on the shape and/or size of cavity and process conditions rather than intrinsic viscosity of feedstock. The optimum injection speed was determined in region of Newtonian flow of in-mold rheology curve. The dimensional deviation was below about 5 µm in the micro part injected with the optimum speed.

Abstract: Powder Injection molding (PIM) is a cost-effective process for the fabrication of complex shaped parts, and has a great potential in many applications. In this work, an improved wax-based binder was developed for the powder injection molding of TiH₂ powder fabricated by recycling of Ti chip. Fine TiH₂ powders of about 350 nm in particle size were produced by attrition milling of Ti chip in less than five minutes, resulting from simultaneous self-propagating High temperature Synthesis (SHS) and fracturing. TiH₂ feedstock, a mixture of binder and powders, was fabricated with critical powder loading of 68 vol.%. The rheological characteristics of the feedstock were investigated for subsequent processing step. Viscosity of the feedstock showed pseudo-plastic flow behavior and to optimize injection molding parameter, in-mold rheology curve was generated. The results indicated that the recycled TiH₂ feedstock can be used for the fabrication of the complex shaped parts with good shape.

Abstract: Vibration characteristics of 5μm- thick Ni film were investigated with applying acoustic wave to the Ni diaphragm of 2mm x 2mm unit size. In the modal analysis, the first resonance mode of the diaphragm showed an out-of-plane piston-like movement and the first natural frequency was 1,643 Hz, whereas in this experiment, the first natural frequency appears at about 1,300 Hz under sound pressure of 0.2 Pa. The amplitudes of diaphragm increase with increase of sound pressure level in the applied frequency range from 300 Hz to 1,000 Hz, indicating that area of diaphragm influences directly the amplitude.

Abstract: Using commercial Ti powders and recycled TiH2 powders made from titanium turning chips, the effects of hydrogen on microstructures and oxygen reduction were investigated. Each powder was hot-pressed at 750oC and 1100oC, which are below and above β-transition temperature (880oC), respectively. The TiH2 and Ti samples of sintered at 1100oC showed equiaxed α phase. However, TiH2 sample sintered at 750oC consist of primary α phase, secondary α phase and titanium hydride (TiH2), though Ti sample represented single α phase. The formation of complex microstructure in TiH2 sample sintered at 750oC is due to hydrogen remained after sintering. The oxygen contents after sintering in TiH2 samples were relatively lower than Ti samples, although those before sintering were higher than Ti. This result can be explained that hydrogen gas generated from dehydrogenation of TiH2 leads to the reduction of oxygen contents and protection of re-oxidation during sintering.

Abstract: As the electrodeposition reaction is a heterogeneous reaction including both material transfer and electrochemical reaction, this study tries to find out the reaction mechanism about Ag electrodepostion used as semiconductor interconnection using rotating disk electrode system (RDE system). Considering the environmental problem, non-cyanide Ag electrodeposition solution has been carried out. With varying the process conditions of a certain range including the rotating speed of RDE, applied voltage, and temperature etc., obtained the electrodeposition rate of Ag according to the reaction time. The rate determining step was clarified with the activation energy(Ea) of the electrodeposition reactions for the each process conditions estimated from Arrhenius Plot. Activation energy of Ag in the temperature range between 18°C and 32°C was 3.2kcal/mole. The electrodeposition rate of Ag seems to be controlled mass transport. With the electrodepositon solution mentioned above, the characteristics of silver thin film and bottom-up filling capability were investigated by DC or pulsed electrodeposition method. Especially, the effects of additives on the properties of bottom-up filling of Ag were studied.

Abstract: The thin film resistors such as Ni-Cr alloy could be formed by the electrodeposition method for embedded passive device in printed circuit board. A kinetic study on the electrodeposition of nickel-chromium alloy on copper has been performed using a rotating disk geometry. Activation energies of nickel and chromium in the temperature range between 15°C and 35°C were 8.9kcal/mole and 3.5kcal/mole, respectively. The electrodeposition rate of nickel seems to be controlled partly by electrochemical reaction and partly by mass transport, namely mixed controlled. However, that of chromium seems to be controlled by mass transport. As the amount of chromium in deposit increased, the electric resistance of deposit surface increased. The maximum electric resistance of nickel-chromium alloy deposit was 78.6Ω /□.