Effect of tetramethylammonium hydroxide/isopropyl alcohol wet etching on geometry and surface roughness of silicon nanowires fabricated by AFM lithography
نویسندگان
چکیده
The optimization of etchant parameters in wet etching plays an important role in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. Wet etching of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)/isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on silicon nanowires fabricated by AFM lithography is studied herein. TMAH (25 wt %) with different IPA concentrations (0, 10, 20, and 30 vol %) and etching time durations (30, 40, and 50 s) were investigated. The relationships between etching depth and width, and etching rate and surface roughness of silicon nanowires were characterized in detail using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The obtained results indicate that increased IPA concentration in TMAH produced greater width of the silicon nanowires with a smooth surface. It was also observed that the use of a longer etching time causes more unmasked silicon layers to be removed. Importantly, throughout this study, wet etching with optimized parameters can be applied in the design of the devices with excellent performance for many applications.
منابع مشابه
Low-Loss Slot Waveguides with Silicon (111) Surfaces Realized Using Anisotropic Wet Etching
We demonstrate low-loss slot waveguides on silicon-on-insulator platform. Waveguides oriented along the (11-2) direction on the Si (110) plane were first fabricated by a standard e-beam lithography and dry etching process. A tetramethylammonium hydroxide-based anisotropic wet etching technique was then used to remove any residual side wall roughness. Using this fabrication technique, propagatio...
متن کاملEffect of Isopropyl Alcohol Concentration and Etching Time on Wet Chemical Anisotropic Etching of Low-Resistivity Crystalline Silicon Wafer
A micropyramid structure was formed on the surface of a monocrystalline silicon wafer (100) using a wet chemical anisotropic etching technique. The main objective was to evaluate the performance of the etchant based on the silicon surface reflectance. Different isopropyl alcohol (IPA) volume concentrations (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10%) and different etching times (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 min) were selec...
متن کاملSilicon nanowires with sub 10 nm lateral dimensions: From atomic force microscope lithography based fabrication to electrical measurements
The ability of the atomic force microscope ~AFM! to realize lithography patterns on silicon surfaces is widely known and leads to the formation of silicon nanostructures after an etching step. In this article, we aim at improving the fabrication process to yield silicon nanowires with minimum lateral dimensions for the realization of Coulomb blockade based devices. First, we focus on the AFM li...
متن کاملImpact of Parameter Variation in Fabrication of Nanostructure by Atomic Force Microscopy Nanolithography
In this letter, we investigate the fabrication of Silicon nanostructure patterned on lightly doped (10(15) cm(-3)) p-type silicon-on-insulator by atomic force microscope nanolithography technique. The local anodic oxidation followed by two wet etching steps, potassium hydroxide etching for silicon removal and hydrofluoric etching for oxide removal, are implemented to reach the structures. The i...
متن کاملArea Effect of Reflectance in Silicon Nanowires Grown by Electroless Etching
This paper shows that the reflectance in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) can be optimized as a function of the area of silicon substrate where the nanostructure growth. SiNWs were fabricated over four different areas of silicon substrates to study the size effects using electroless etching technique. Three different etching solution concentrations of silver nitrate (AgNO3) and hydroflu...
متن کامل