Manufacturing of metallic micro-components using hybrid soft lithography and micro-electrical discharge machining

In spite of significant improvements in micro-replication techniques, methods to fabricate well-defined net shape microstructures are still in a developing stage. Soft lithography has the capability to manufacture complex micro- and nanostructures. Although it is considered a robust technique, a major limitation is related to the distortion encountered in the fabricated structures during the drying process. In the present work, a manufacturing technology has been developed that emerges the benefits of soft lithography and micro-electrical discharge machining (mu-EDM) to produce stainless steel precise micro-components for micro-implantable devices. The micro-parts produced by soft lithography were subsequently surface processed via mu-EDM in order to improve the surface quality. In addition to this, it was found that mu-EDM drastically improved the surface roughness of stainless steel micro-components from Ra = 3.4 mu m to Ra = 0.43 mu m.