the vertical flow system for the main etching experiments has been described in literature for electrodeposition experiments ( meuleman , w . r . a ., et al ., j . electrochem . soc . 149 , c479 - c486 ( 2002 ); dulal , s . m . s . i ., et al ., electrochim . acta , 49 , 2041 - 2049 ( 2004 )). the design of the flow cell , which is shown in fig2 and 3 , was based on a model previously constructed by roy et al . ( roy , s ., et al ., chem . eng . science , 56 , 5025 ( 2001 )). the flow system , which is illustrated in fig1 , consisted of the flow cell 6 with two electrode holders , one for the cathode 7 and one for the anode 8 , a heat exchanger 2 , a filter unit / settling tank 3 , an electrolyte reservoir 4 , magnetically coupled pump 5 , and a flow meter ( not shown ). the power supply 1 is coupled to the anode and cathode . the cross - section of the flow cell as seen in fig2 was rectangular and the electrolyte circulated upwards through the channel . the electrolyte was stored in a reservoir 4 and the velocity of the electrolyte was controlled by a manual valve and monitored by a digital flow meter . the distance between the channel walls , except at the electrodes , was 3 . 0 mm . to prevent the formation of any eddy at the inlet and outlet of the flow channel , the entry and exit sections 10 were conically shaped . the two electrodes holders 7 , 8 were placed in the middle of the flow channel , whose positions are adjusted with micro - precision control screws or shims 9 . an interelectrode gap of 0 . 5 mm between the two electrodes was achieved by using a specific chamfered shape of the electrode holders , which is shown in fig4 . copper rods 13 , of diameter of 1 . 0 cm and 99 . 99 % purity , were segmented into 3 mm thick discs , and inserted into a teflon cup 12 which fitted into the holder 7 . the back of these electrodes was connected to another copper rod 11 via a spring , as illustrated in fig4 . in each experiment , the electrodes were loaded in their holders and inserted into the cell . electrolyte was then circulated through for approximately five minutes at a flow rate of 70 - 90 cm 3 s − 1 (& gt ; 3 . 5 ms − 1 flow velocity ) to eliminate air bubbles from the electrode surface . since there was no reference electrode in these experiments , only the cell potential was monitored or controlled . all experiments , therefore , were galvanostatic . during the course of a pattern transfer experiment , the cathode was plated with copper , which was removed using a 25 % hno 3 solution . each copper disc , which served as an anode , was polished to a mirror finish using # 1200 , # 2400 , and # 4000 grit emery paper . the measured surface roughness of the polished copper discs was about 20 - 40 nm , but larger machining damage remained — however , these did not influence the results . after polishing , the copper discs were slightly convex ; the copper discs were found to be approximately 60 μm thicker in the middle than at the edges . the cathodes were gold coated glass discs with a diameter of 1 . 0 cm . electrical contact between the gold surface and the back of the glass disc was made by painting the back and side wall with conductive silver paint ( rs components ). the cathode was patterned using photolithography by modifying a standard photolithographic process for 100 mm wafers . in the photolithography experiments , each glass disc was cleaned with acetone and glued at the centre of a clean silicon wafer with double - sided adhesive tape . then , the glass discs were individually coated with photoresist ( shipley , spr 220 - 7 . 0 ) using a ev 101 spin coater . a few drops of resist were added manually to the middle of the glass disc at a spin rate of 500 rpm . after spin coating the samples were baked at 95 ° c . for one hour to remove any excess solvent . four coated glass discs were then placed on a silicon wafer and the glass photomask with the micro - pattern was placed onto the four glass discs . the photoresist was then exposed to uv light through the photomask by using the ev 620 contact aligner . the exposure time was 35 seconds . the samples were then developed for two minutes using a developer ( shipley , mf - 26a ). after cleaning with deionised water , the cathodes finally were hard - baked for one hour at 105 ° c . these photolithography procedures produced a resist thickness of 7 - 8 μm . the micro - pattern used for the primary etching experiments was previously used in a work about a novel gold electrodeposition process for microelectronic applications ( theory and practice of pulse plating , ed . j - c . puippe and f . leaman , published by american electroplaters and surface finishers society , orlando , fla ., usa , isbn 0 - 936569 - 02 - 6 ( 1986 )). the mask pattern consisted of large squares , which were delineated by lines abcd , as illustrated in fig5 . when this pattern is transferred to a glass disc , the grey regions represent the resist covered areas and the white regions denote exposed areas . as shown , the uncovered areas consist of lines with 100 μm thickness ( t 1 ) and 3 . 0 mm length ( t 4 ). within each large square , 81 smaller squares of 100 μm ( t 3 ) sides are placed . these squares were separated from each other by a distance of 200 μm ( t 4 ). the advantage of using this pattern is that the replication of both 1 and 2 dimensional features can be investigated . other micro - patterns were designed to test the pattern transfer performance of the technique . one of these was a pattern consisting of straight lines with varying width and spacing . these pattern designs allowed examination of the reproduction of one - dimensional structures of small widths — as small as 10 μm . since the width of the lines and line spacing were changed in these experiments , the current density and the feature width could be changed independently . this allowed observation if either of these two factors had any effect on the pattern transfer . a variety of current and potential controls were used in the pattern transfer experiments . etching experiments at constant current between 0 . 3 acm − 2 and 1 . 0 acm − 2 were performed with a dc power supply ( pl 310 , thurlby thandar ). etching experiments at a constant cell voltage were carried out by using voltage control on the same instrument . the applied current and cell voltage as well as the corresponding time to obtain the same total etch depth are listed in table 1 . the table also shows the different electrolytes and conductivities used in the etching experiments . the electrolyte flow rate was varied between stagnant and 150 cm 3 s − 1 ( which corresponds to a fluid velocity of 7 . 5 ms − 1 ) to see if it had any effect on the etching performance . pulsed etching experiments were performed by using a pulse current power supply ( capp - 25 / 20 - k , axel akerman ). pulsing cell voltage was applied . for a square wave pulse with peak potential v p , pulse - on time t p , and pulse period t pp , ( so that t p / t pp is the duty cycle ), the “ average ” cell potential v a for the current waveform is given by : the “ average ” cell potential includes ohmic drop within the electrolyte and potential changes due to non - faradaic processes ( hoar , t . p ., “ the anodic behaviour of metals ”, modern aspects of electrochemistry , vol . 2 , the university press , glasgow ( 1959 )). table 2 shows the parameters used during pulsed voltage etching experiments . for the characterization of the patterned cathodes and the etched copper anodes different measurement systems were used . for feature lengths and widths measurements , an olympus mx50 microscope , equipped with a brsl ‘ david ’ system was used . an alpha - step 200 stylus profilometer was used to determine the etch depth and surface roughness . non - contact 3d measurements were carried out with a zygo newview 5020 optical profiler to measure depth and length scales . scanning electron microscopy was used to determine the surface morphology as well as defects before and after a pattern transfer experiment . the scales in fig6 to 8 is presented using the optical profiler , because it shows both the feature length , depth as well as roughness — other scaling has not been shown for brevity . the effect of fluid flow on pattern transfer was first determined . this experiment was carried out first because at the high electrode overpotentials attained during transpassive etching , oxygen evolution is expected . the evolving oxygen could block the electrode surface , thereby preventing further etching , caused by the high localized resistance offered by a gas bubble . pattern transfer experiments at constant or pulsed current and voltage revealed that this could seriously impair the etching performance . when a gas bubble was trapped within the resist , it resulted in local circular areas ( the shape of a bubble ) remaining un - etched . in addition , the photoresist on the cathode ( counter electrode ) was often detached due to the turbulence generated by gas evolution . as the electrolyte flow rate was increased , the gas bubbles detached from the surface more easily and electrochemical dissolution could proceed . the etching performance for electrolyte flow rate of 70 cm 3 s − 1 ( 3 . 5 ms − 1 ) were found to give satisfactory performance , and therefore , this flow rate was used for all further experiments described below . the next parameter to be investigated was the electrolyte conductivity . the effect on pattern transfer was examined by direct current experiments using electrolytes of different conductivity . the applied current density was fixed at 1 . 0 acm − 1 and the etching time was 180 seconds in these experiments . the etched features for acidified electrolytes , such as 0 . 1 m cuso 4 with 0 . 5 m h 2 so 4 electrolyte , were found to be a ‘ derivative ’ of the tool pattern ; for example a square shape , such as the small squares of fig5 , produced sine - wave like features on the substrate . etching experiments with non - acidified electrolytes produced accurate pattern transfer . an example of this is illustrated in fig6 ; this pattern was etched using tool patterned as in fig4 using a 0 . 1 m cuso 4 solution with an applied current density of 1 . 0 acm − 1 and an etching time of 180 seconds . the small squares in that pattern , with 100 μm × 100 μm , are reproduced as a square with a flat bottom , as shown in the sem ( fig6 a ) and the 3d optical profile ( fig6 b ). the length and depth scales are resolved in the 2d optical profile ( fig6 c ) etched copper sample ; the feature length is 120 μm and the etch depth is 1 . 5 μm . since best etching results were achieved into a 0 . 1 m cuso 4 electrolyte with a conductivity of 2 . 7 sm − 1 , all etching experiment described below are reported for this specific electrolyte , unless stated otherwise . from the above , it can be seen that varying the nature of the electrolyte whist keeping the tool pattern the same , can alter the pattern etched on the work piece . the next parameter to be investigated was the effect of applied current density or cell voltage on pattern transfer characteristics . etching experiments in the current density range between 0 . 3 acm − 2 and 1 . 0 acm − 2 were carried out to determine the performance at higher currents , where pre - passive or transpassive dissolution is expected to occur . overall , the etching experiments at high current densities showed better pattern transfer than the experiments in the active dissolution region . etch depths up to 1 . 5 μm were reached for applied current densities of 1 . 0 acm − 2 and an etching time of 180 s ; however , when the etching time was increased beyond 180 seconds , the etch depth did not increase . this showed that that the substrate was dissolving at the same rate everywhere and that etching selectivity was lost . pattern transfer experiments were also carried out using a constant cell voltage between 1 . 0 v and 2 . 0 v . for applied cell potentials of 1 . 0 v the resulting current density rose up to a steady value between 3 . 5 - 7 . 0 acm − 2 . a current density rise to such high values could indicate dissolution in the transpassive region , and some of the experiments showed periodic oscillations with an amplitude of around 0 . 2 acm − 2 and a frequency of 0 . 2 - 0 . 5 hz . these periodic oscillations may be induced by sequential periods of film growth , oxidation , and partial dissolution and removal of salt and oxide layer ( lee , h . p ., et al ., j . electrochem . soc ., 132 , 1031 ( 1985 )). as shown by the sem micrograph of a linear pattern in fig7 a , which was obtained by applying a constant potential 1 . 0 v for 180 seconds in a 1 . 0m cuso 4 electrolyte , the etched area is relatively rough . the tool pattern was lines covered with photoresist which were 70 μm in width separated by an exposed area of 70 μm . the 3d optical profiles in fig7 b show the smooth top surface and a rough etched bottom surface , as observed in the sem . the length and depth scales , as resolved in the 2d optical profile of fig7 c , show a line width of 70 μm and an etch depth of 1 . 5 μm . the profile of the etched lines shows relative vertical walls at the top but a curved bottom . however , using pulsed cell voltages with a peak potential of either 10 v or 20 v were found to be more successful . the pulse - on time t p was varied between 1 . 0 ms and 10 . 0 ms with duty cycles between 0 . 01 and 0 . 1 . fig8 a shows the scanning electron micrograph , fig8 b the 2d optical profile and fig8 c the 3d optical profiles of an etched copper sample using pulsed voltages . the original micropattern consisted of exposed linear features of 10 μm separated by a resist covered area of 50 μm . this was obtained using 4000 pulse cycles of 20 v voltage pulses and 1 ms on time and a duty cycle of 0 . 02 . the 2d scale resolution shows an etch depth of 1 . 0 μm , a feature width of about 10 μm , with relative vertical walls and a flat bottom . in contrast to the active dissolution experiments , as the cycle numbers ( hence etching time ) were increased , the etch depth increased . for 20 , 000 pulse cycles , an average etch depth of 3 . 3 μm was obtained . although the present invention has been described in connection with preferred embodiments thereof , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that additions , deletions , modifications , and substitutions not specifically described may be made without department from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims .