Date of Publication :19th April 2017

Abstract: Miniaturization of the products/processes is no more a fashion rather it is the need of the time because one can drive multifarious benefits from such products/processes, namely they are very simple, occupy less space, low power consumption, more flexible, saving in material and many more. Hence fabrication of these miniaturized products presents challenges in many areas of engineering. Micromachining is the foundation of the technology to realize such miniaturized products. Micro-Electro Discharge Machining (μ-EDM) is one such high precision non-conventional machining process in which electrical discharges are produced between the tool electrode and the work piece electrode immersed in dielectric fluid. The electrical discharges thus produced remove the work piece material through melting and evaporation process and results in the creation of micro features on any conducting and semiconducting engineering materials irrespective of their size, shape and mechanical properties like strength, hardness, refractoriness etc. Some of the engineering materials machined using EDM are tungsten, tungsten carbide, copper, copper tungsten alloy, silver, brass, graphite, beryllium copper alloy, hardenable steels etc. Now the process is extends to machine semiconducting material like silicon wafer. In this paper, some of the results obtained while performing the investigation on machining of blind holes on silica wafer using developed µ-EDM process. Blind holes are produced on silicon wafer of 100 µm thicknesses with copper wire of 610 µm diameter as a tool electrode and stainless steel of 710 µm diameter as a tool electrode using Kerosene and Deionized water as dielectric fluids. The repeatability of the depth and surface finish of the blind holes are verified with constant time period by varying frequencies.

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