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In this study, the micro electro-polishing method was employed to improve the surface quality of microbeams machined by the micro WEDM method and to remove the recast layer. This approach changes the dimensions of the microbeams, as a result of the electrochemical corrosion, in addition to the elimination of the recast layer. To diminish the impact of this process on the dimensional deviation of the fabricated microbeams, the influence of the micro electro-polishing process parameters such as voltage, duration, cathode diameter, and electrolyte composition on the dimensional deviation of microbeams was studied using the Taguchi method. The optimum values of process parameters were determined by the S/N ratios analysis, and the order of parameters importance was determined through analysis of variance of the S/N ratios. It was found that the optimal levels of the process parameters are voltage of 2 V, process duration of 20 s, cathode diameter of 50 mm, and electrolyte composition of 25-5-40 ml (sulfuric-phosphoric-water) within the range of experiments. By using the optimum values of the parameters, the dimensional deviations were found to be 5.23 times lower compared to the average of the results. The importance of process parameters was found to follow this order: electropolishing duration, electrolyte composition, cathode diameter, and process voltage.

Metal-based microelectromechanical systems are widely used in applications such as micro-energy harvesters, micro-heat exchangers and micro-electromagnetic that require high strength and flexibility. In the fabrication of such systems, micro wire electrical discharge machining (MicroWEDM) is majorly used. This paper studies the effect of the MicroWEDM process parameters on the dimensional deviation of machined MEMS structures including microcantilevers and micro-beams using the Taguchi method. Using optimal levels of the parameters including pulse duration (0.8 µs), cutting speed (8.4 mm/min), voltage (17 V) and wire tension (0.5 kg), the dimensional deviation is reduced about 8.65 times compared with the average of experiments results. The order of effect importance of the process parameters on the dimensional deviation of microstructures obtained by the ANOVA analysis of S/N ratios is as follows: pulse duration, wire tension, process voltage and cutting speed. Dimensional deviation of the micro-features was reduced to 1 μm using the optimal levels of the process parameters.

The Micro wire electrical discharge machining (Micro wire-EDM) process is a modern machining process with various applications in manufacturing micro-parts. The recast layer remaining on the machined surfaces is an inevitable complication of this process. This layer can subsequently affect the machined parts performance. To optimize the recast layer in the micro wire-EDM of the molybdenum microparts, effect of the process parameters on the distribution amplitude of the recast layer was investigated using the Taguchi method. The obtained results showed that the optimal levels of the micro wire-EDM process parameters for achieving the optimal distribution amplitude of the recast layer are as follows: spark pulse-on time of 0.2 μs, cutting speed of 7 mm/min, process voltage of 17 V, and wire tension of 0.45 kg. Also the importance order of the effect of the process parameters on the distribution amplitude of recast layer is as follows: spark pulse-on time, process voltage, cutting speed, and wire tension.