Modelling and simulation based surface characterization of reverse-µEDM fabricated micro pin-fins

Abstract

Cross-sectional profile and surface quality of micro-fins of a heat sink play a significant role in the transmission of heat from microelectronic and MEMS devices subjected to intense heating. Several processes are available for the fabrication of such pin-fins, Reverse micro electro discharge machining (RµEDM) among them is one of the most promising. A wide range of parameters associated with this process provides varying competence for surface roughness. An effectively modeled and simulated surface, thus, may serve as a database for an operator to study the effect of parameters for the desired surface. A single discharge model is developed to study the volume removal by each discharge pulse to achieve the goal. ANSYS finite element code is used to simulate the process to find the volume of the crater for further prediction of average surface roughness values. The model’s predictions are compared with experimental results for verifying the approach and presented a good agreement with them. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.