Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-23-2014
Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Abstract
In this work, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is reported to form gallium thin film with high deposition rate and low cost while avoiding the highly toxic chemicals typically used in electroplating. A maximum deposition rate of ~0.6 μm/min, almost one order of magnitude higher than the typical value reported for electroplating, is obtained when employing a set of proper deposition parameters. The thickness of the film is shown to increase with deposition time when sequential deposition is employed. The concentration of Mg(NO3)2, the charging salt, is also found to be a critical factor to control the deposition rate. Various gallium micropatterns are obtained by masking the substrate during the process, demonstrating process compatibility with microfabrication. The reported novel approach can potentially be employed in a broad range of applications with Ga as a raw material, including microelectronics, photovoltaic cells, and flexible liquid metal microelectrodes.
Publication Title
Micromachines
Recommended Citation
Zhang, H.,
Mao, Y.,
Santhanagopalan, S.,
&
Meng, D. D.
(2014).
Electrophoretic deposition of gallium with high deposition rate.
Micromachines,
6(1), 32-41.
http://doi.org/10.3390/mi6010032
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1985
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/mi6010032