The LIGA process (Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung, or lithography, electrodeposition, shaping) offers the possibility of mass producing strong mesoscale (order of a few mm or less) metal components of nearly any planar shape. Multilayer deposition has been developed to create three-dimensional shapes. The overall objective of this multi-year project is to enable the use of the Johnson-Cook flow and fracture models for evaluation of structural elements made from two LIGA alloys of interest, by providing the material property data at the microscale needed to carry out structural analyses utilizing these models. This report documents the first milestone in the project, which is the measurement of the room-temperature tensile properties of two LIGA alloys of one commercial vendor's proprietary materials -one optimized for strength and the other for ductility, with nominal thicknesses 190 µm and 170 µm respectively -at strain rates 0.001/s and 1/s, utilizing four specimen geometries with gauge widths ranging from 75 µm to 700 µm. Test methods adapted to the scale of these materials were applied. Results, measurement uncertainties, and statistical variations for the ultimate tensile strength and apparent Young's modulus are quantified for all combinations of these material/geometry/rate variations. In addition, preliminary studies were conducted into the effects of low-temperature annealing on the materials' strength, and use of electron back scatter diffraction to observe the microstructure.
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Executive SummaryThis report presents the results of room-temperature tensile tests on microfabricated specimens of two LIGA Ni alloys of interest to the project sponsor and supplied by a commercial vendor. Microtensile specimens of the vendor's proprietary materials -"Alpha" and "C" -were supplied with nominal thicknesses of 190 µm and 170 µm, respectively, and of four different sizes with gauge widths ranging from 0.075 mm to 0.7 mm. The Alpha material is very strong, with consistent strength around 1900 MPa over several fabrication runs of the material. The C material has lower strength -around 600 MPa -and is more ductile. Both materials were tested at strain rates 0.001/s and 1 /s; Figure 1 shows typical engineering stress-strain curves. Small size-and rate effects were found in both materials in the ranges tested. Pin-loaded tensile specimens were used with general purpose tensile test apparatus consistent with the scale of the specimens. This approach succeeded in measurements of the strength and ductility. However, attempts to measure the Young's modulus were not fully successful because of large experimental uncertainties and a microplasticity phenomenon similar to that reported as material instability in the previous literature on LIGA Ni materials. Figure 1. shows stressstrain curves for 2 nominal specimens, one of each material, tested at the two strain rates. The Alpha material clearly exhibits much higher strength and lower ductility than the C material.(a) (b) Figure 1. Engineering stress-...