The Property of Ni-Fe Electrodeposits for MEMS

This paper was focused on the composition controlling, coating microstructure and electromagnetic character of Ni-Fe deposit. The results indicated that the Ni-Fe deposit was bright and compact; the crystal-planes of the deposit were (111), (220) and (200). And the optimal process parameters to obtain Ni-20%Fe deposition was as following: FeSO4·7H20 concentration was 6g/L; PH value of the solution was 2.5; current density was 3.5 A/dm2; electrolyte temperature 55°C. The resistivity of deposit was about 30μΩ·cm, when the Fe(wt.%) ranged from 10% to 50% in the deposit. Electrodeposited Ni-20%Fe has a strong paramagnetism effect with the smallest remanence of 0.5 emu, The coercivity show a monotonic decrease with increasing Fe content in deposit, and the saturation magnetization was only 10% of that of the IJ85 permalloy, which proved that the electroformed Ni-20%Fe alloy has good electromagnetic property and could be used in MEMS actuator fabrication.Copyright © 2007 by ASME