Not all materials can be etched in an easy and cheap way. Especially, noble metals or tantalum are stable against most of these corrosive structuring methods. Hence, precision machining may be used to generate microstructures from these metals as well as from standard metal alloys such as stainless steel or hastelloy. Depending on the material, precision machining can be performed by spark erosion (wire spark erosion and countersunk spark erosion), laser machining or mechanical precision machining. In this case, mechanical precision machining means milling, drilling, slotting and planning. Although themachining technology used is comparable to the techniques well known from conventional dimensions in the millimeter range or above, the.
