  The process of nickel electroforming is becoming increasingly important in
the manufacture of MST products, as it has the potential to replicate complex
geometries with extremely high fidelity. Electroforming of nickel uses
multi-component electrolyte formulations in order to maximise desirable product
properties. In addition to nickel sulphamate (the major electrolyte component),
formulation additives can also comprise nickel chloride (to increase nickel
anode dissolution), sulphamic acid (to control pH), boric acid (to act as a pH
buffer), hardening/levelling agents (to increase deposit hardness and lustre)
and wetting agents (to aid surface wetting and thus prevent gas bubbles and
void formation). This paper investigates the effects of some of these variables
on internal stress and stretch as a function of applied current density.
