A study on the forming of microchannels by micro rolling of copper foils

Copper microchannels have been attracting more and more attention due to the increasing demands for multifunctional microcomponents in the field of micromanufacturing. In the present work, the forming of microchannels on copper foils was studied by micro rolling. Copper foils with the thickness of 0.1 mm were selected and annealed at 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 °C for 10 min prior to micro rolling, and the formability and quality of microchannels were systematically investigated. The results show that an optimal annealing temperature of 500 °C is beneficial to the forming of microchannels with high surface quality. A series of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) tests were performed in order to explore the effect of annealing temperatures on the formability of copper foils during micro rolling, and the results indicate that the high forming accuracy of microchannels with copper foils annealed at 500 °C is mainly attributed to the high geometric dislocation density. Additionally, the weakening of major texture components (the Brass, S and Goss components) through optimization of heat treatment also contributes to the improvement of forming accuracy of microchannels, promoting the forming of high-quality microchannels by micro rolling process.