Photochemical Machining of Alumina Ceramic in Phosphoric Acid

Photochemical Machining of Alumina Ceramic in Phosphoric Acid

Winter 1987

Fine ceramics have become useful in many industries. However, since they are difficult-to-machine materials, there are many problems in applications. Hence developments ofnew processing techniques for ceramic materials have been required. The purpose of this investigation is to develop the photochemical machining technique of alumina ceramic.

Since ceramic materials have very high chemical resistance, etchant systems are important. Phosphoric acid has been shown to chemically attach several ceramic materials and has been used to chemically polish a number of oxide materials (1-4). It therefore seems likely that some ceramic materials can also be chemically machined with phosphoric acid.

The other important material is a photoresist for photochemical machining. Since etching conditions may be very severe, a high-resistant and chemically inert material is needed.

Eiji Makino, Toshikazu Sato, and Yoshihiko Yamada, Hokkaido University