High speed silicon wet anisotropic etching for applications in bulk micromachining: a review

Wet anisotropic etching is extensively employed in silicon bulk micromachining to fabricate microstructures for various applications in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In addition, it is most widely used for surface texturing to minimize the reflectance of light to improve the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. In wet bulk micromachining, the etch rate is a major factor that affects the throughput. Slower etch rate increases the fabrication time and therefore is of great concern in MEMS industry where wet anisotropic etching is employed to perform the silicon bulk micromachining, especially to fabricate deep cavities and freestanding microstructures by removal of underneath material through undercutting process. Several methods have been proposed to increase the etch rate of silicon in wet anisotropic etchants either by physical means (e.g. agitation, microwave irradiation) or chemically by incorporation of additives. The ultrasonic agitation during etching and microwave irradiation on the etchants increase the etch rate. However, ultrasonic method may rupture the fragile structures and microwave irradiation causes irradiation damage to the structures. Another method is to increase the etching temperature towards the boiling point of the etchant. The etching characteristics of pure potassium hydroxide solution (KOH) is studied near the boiling point of KOH, while surfactant added tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is investigated at higher temperature to increase the etch rate. Both these studies have shown a potential way of increasing the etch rate by elevating the temperature of the etchants to its boiling point, which is a function of concentration of etch solution. The effect of various kinds of additives on the etch rate of silicon is investigated in TMAH and KOH. In this paper, the additives which improve the etch rate have been discussed. Recently the effect of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) on the etching characteristics of TMAH and KOH is investigated in detail. The concentration of NH2OH in TMAH/KOH is varied to optimize the etchant composition to obtain improved etching characteristics especially the etch rate and undercutting which are important parameters for increasing throughput. In this article, different methods explored to improve the etch rate of silicon have been discussed so that the researchers/scientists/engineers can get the details of these methods in a single reference.

Rapid Processing of Wafer-Scale Anti-Reflecting 3D Hierarchical Structures on Silicon and Its Templation

Hierarchically structured silicon (Si) surfaces with a combination of micro/nano-structures are highly explored for their unique surface and optical properties. In this context, we propose a rapid and facile electroless method to realize hierarchical structures on an entire Si wafer of 3″ diameter. The overall process takes only 65 s to complete, unlike any conventional wet chemical approach that often combines a wet anisotropic etching of (100) Si followed by a metal nanoparticle catalyst etching. Hierarchical surface texturing on Si demonstrates a broadband highly reduced reflectance with average R% ~ 2.7% within 300–1400 nm wavelength. The as-fabricated hierarchical structured Si was also templated on a thin transparent layer of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) that further demonstrated prospects for improved solar encapsulation with high optical clarity and low reflectance (90% and 2.8%).

SIMULATION STUDY OF CONVEX CORNER UNDERCUTTING IN KOH AND TMAH FOR A MEMS PIEZORESISTIVE ACCELEROMETER

Undercutting is a common problem in wet anisotropic etching. This problem in turn, influences the performance and sensitivity of MEMS devices. This paper investigates the use of corner compensation to prevent convex corner undercutting in a MEMS piezoresistive accelerometer. The Intellisuite CAD simulation software was used for designing the mask with corner compensation and for analysing wet anisotropic etching profiles in potassium hydroxide (KOH) and tetra-methyl-ammonium-hydroxide (TMAH) solutions at different concentrations and temperatures. Perfect 90 degrees corners on the proof mass was successfully etched using a corner compensation design at etching temperature of 63 °C for KOH and 67.7 °C for TMAH with 25 wt% and 10.3 wt% concentration levels, respectively. Etching in TMAH required lower concentration level, thus making the etching process safer. However, TMAH required longer time to etch perfect convex corners compared to KOH. Nevertheless, both KOH and TMAH etchants have been successfully used to etch perfect convex corners by using the designed corner compensation mask.

FABRICATION OF PYRAMIDAL CAVITY STRUCTURE WITH MICRON-SIZED TIP USING ANISOTROPIC KOH ETCHING OF SILICON (100)

Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) are systems of micron-sized structures and typically integrated with microelectronic components. Bulk micromachining using wet anisotropic etching is able to etch silicon substrates to a desired three-dimensional (3D) structure, depending on the silicon crystallographic orientation. To date, MEMS components i.e. thermal, pressure, mechanical, bio/chemical sensors have been fabricated with wet anisotropic etching of silicon. This paper presents the fabrication of a 3D pyramidal cavity structure with micron-sized tip of silicon (100) using anisotropic KOH etching of w/w 45 % at 80 oC temperature. Volume percent of 10 % IPA as a less polar diluent is added to the KOH etching solution in saturating the solution and controlling the etching selectivity and rate. Smooth etched silicon surface of hillock free is able to be achieved with IPA addition to the KOH etching solution. A characteristic V-shaped cavity with side angle of 54.8 degrees has successfully been formed and is almost identical to the theoretical structure model. Comparison of two different silicon nitride window masks on the micron-size tip formation is also investigated. Under etch, over etch and etching selectivity, as common problems effecting the micron-tip size variation, are also addressed in this work. In conclusion, anisotropic KOH etching as a simple, fast and inexpensive bulk micromachining technique, in fabricating 3D MEMS structure using silicon (100), is validated in this work.