Electrolytic Photoetching and Its Applications

Summer 1987

Electrolytic Photoetching and Its Applications

The technique of electrolytic photoetching involves production of a resist stencil on a metal sheet by standard procedures used in the photochemical (PCM) industry (1). However, instead of spray-etching as in conventional PCM, metal dissolution is achieved electrochemically by connecting the metal sheet as an anode in an electrolytic cell. Electrolytic photoetching for part production has probably been developed from its use in the printing trade to surface-etch printing plates. Such systems were reported in the 1920s for etching copper and brass and over the next decade techniques were refined and extended to include other materials such as zinc and steel. Practical experimentation suggested that the method offered distinct advantages (e.g. less undercut and a faster rate of etching) over paddle-etching; its main rival at that time (2).

Dr. D.M. Allen, Cranfield Institute of Technology