Microstructures with rounded concave and sharp-edged convex corners in a single step wet anisotropic etching

Prem Pal; Kazuo Sato; Miguel A. Gosalvez; Mitsuhiro Shikida

doi:10.1117/12.765475

26 February 2008 Microstructures with rounded concave and sharp-edged convex corners in a single step wet anisotropic etching

Prem Pal, Kazuo Sato, Miguel A. Gosalvez, Mitsuhiro Shikida

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6882, Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology XIII; 68820F (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.765475
Event: MOEMS-MEMS 2008 Micro and Nanofabrication, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

This paper reports a wet anisotropic etching process for the fabrication of silicon MEMS structures with rounded concave and sharp convex corners on (100)-Si wafers. The process is developed using tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) at different concentrations (10, 20, 25 wt%) and a small amount (0.1% v/v) of non-ionic surfactant NC-200. The etching characteristics are measured on a silicon hemisphere and several Si(100) wafers at 60 °C. The hemisphere is used to observe the etching behavior of different crystallographic planes. The present work aims at minimizing the etch rates of non-(100) planes, so that microstructures with rounded concave corners and convex corners can be realized easily. The proposed anisotropic wet etching is used for the fabrication of different kinds of microfluidic channels. Conformal etching in a single step can be realized for arbitrary mask designs targeting 20-25 μm deep microstructures.

Citation Download Citation

Prem Pal, Kazuo Sato, Miguel A. Gosalvez, and Mitsuhiro Shikida "Microstructures with rounded concave and sharp-edged convex corners in a single step wet anisotropic etching", Proc. SPIE 6882, Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology XIII, 68820F (26 February 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.765475

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