Electrophoretic Deposition of Gallium with High Deposition Rate

Micromachines

Hanfei Zhang¹  Yiping Feng¹  Sunand Santhanagopalan¹  Dennis Desheng Meng¹ 

[1] Multi-Scale Energy Systems (MuSES) Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: electrophoretic deposition;    gallium;    micro patterning;    colloid;   

DOI  :  10.3390/mi6010032

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.