Smooth etching of silicon using TMAH and isopropyl alcohol for MEMS applications

    Authors

    K. B. Sundaram; A. Vijayakumar;G. Subramanian

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Microelectron. Eng.

    Keywords

    silicon; etching; TMAH; isopropyl alcohol; ALKALINE-SOLUTIONS; KOH; ROUGHNESS; SURFACES; SI(100); Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Nanoscience & Nanotechnology; Optics; Physics, Applied

    Abstract

    Etching of silicon plays an important role in the field of micromachining. In this study, etching was performed on (1 0 0), (1 1 0) and (1 1 1) silicon using tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH). The roughness of the etched silicon surface was studied as a function of the etching parameters. Etching was carried out at three different temperatures with varying solution concentrations with and without isopropyl alcohol. Emphasis was placed on the roughness of the silicon surface obtained after etching. It was observed that roughness is highly dependent on the solution concentration and temperature. Based on the experimental results and theoretical considerations, the etching mechanism has been explained. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Microelectronic Engineering

    Volume

    77

    Issue/Number

    3-4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    230

    Last Page

    241

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000228797200006

    ISSN

    0167-9317

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