Development of a deep silicon plasma etching process for sensor application

Yuan-Xiong Li; Reinoud F. Wolffenbuttel

doi:10.1117/12.221281

19 September 1995 Development of a deep silicon plasma etching process for sensor application

Yuan-Xiong Li, Reinoud F. Wolffenbuttel

Proceedings Volume 2639, Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.221281
Event: Micromachining and Microfabrication, 1995, Austin, TX, United States

Abstract

Deep silicon plasma etching provides an attractive alternative to conventional anisotropic wet etching for the fabrication of silicon micromechanical structures for sensors and actuators. In this paper an SF₆/O₂ plasma chemistry has been characterized using response surface methodology (RSM) and empirical models of the process responses (such as silicon etch rate and its uniformity, selectivity over the mask, and anisotropy) as a function of the input instrumental variables (such as RF power, system pressure, total gal flow rate, and oxygen content) are obtained. With the empirical models the process is optimized for deep silicon trench etching using a multi-objective optimization scheme. It is shown that RSM is an effective method for exploring the potential of plasma etching in this very challenging application and that deep silicon trenches (several tens of microns) can be obtained with conventional plasma etching machines if appropriate setting for the input variables are chosen as a result of process characterization and optimization.

Citation Download Citation

Yuan-Xiong Li and Reinoud F. Wolffenbuttel "Development of a deep silicon plasma etching process for sensor application", Proc. SPIE 2639, Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology, (19 September 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.221281

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