We report development of special active coatings that are capable of de-icing various solid surfaces vulnerable to icing such as airplane wings, helicopter blades, road signs, superstructures, hulls of ships, etc. The coating consists of a thin web of metal interdigitated microelectrodes formed using photolithography. The electrodes are made of very thin copper on a thin and flexible Kapton substrate. After etching, the electrodes were electroplated with Au to increase their resistance to electro-corrosion. The de-icing action of the coating is based on the phenomenon of ice electrolysis. Namely, when ice forms over the electrodes, a small DC bias of 5 V to 30V is applied to the electrodes to generate a DC current through the ice. The ice adjacent to the electrodes is then decomposed into gaseous hydrogen (on the cathode) and gaseous oxygen (on the anode) thus eliminating bonding between the ice and the metal. Moreover, gas bubbles rapidly growing on the interface spread as interfacial cracks thus breaking the ice. We present a theory of such active grids and describe their preparation procedure. Results of mechanical and electrical tests will be shown