Fabrication of a metal protector for a fiber sensor using through-mask electrochemical micromachining with pulse DC power

The purpose of this study is to fabricate a stainless steel protector for a weak fiber sensor after first stripping the polymer outer-layer off the fiber. In addition to protecting the fiber sensor, the stainless steel protector is required to connect the detection target and the sensor which requires drilling holes in the protector. We accomplished this by electrochemical micromachining the stainless steel protector using pulse DC, using 1 KV/m, 6.62% weight concentration of NaCl electrolyte solution, 500 rpm anode rotating rate, a 5 MHz pulse frequency, a 50% duty factor, and 6 min of machining time with a ring cathode gave the best results, producing an average hole-radius of 231.36 μm.