This paper presents two recent developments in deep silicon etching for MEMS applications using an Alcatel ICP deep dry etching system. In the first part of the paper, a new technique for doubling the state-of-the-art Trench Aspect Ratio from 30 to 60 is introduced. Results are presented showing submicron 0.4 μm wide trenches etched to a depth of 24 μm. In the second part, a new method for dry ...

A gas-phase, room-temperature, plasmaless isotropic etching system has been used for bulk and thin lm silicon etching. A computer controlled multi-chambered etcher is used to provide precisely metered pulses of xenon di uoride (XeF2) gas to the etch chamber. Etch rates as high as 15 microns per minute have been observed. The etch appears to have in nite selectivity to many common thin lms, incl...

A novel Silicon Sacrificial Layer Dry Etching (SSLDE) technique using sputtered amorphous or LPCVD polycrystalline silicon as sacrificial layers and a dry fluorine-based (SF6) plasma chemistry as releasing process is reported with a detailed experimental study of the release etching step. The process is capable of various applications in surface micromachining process, and can be applied in fab...

Track-etched polymer membranes are used to realize low-voltage electroosmotic (EO) pumps. The nanopores in polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes were fabricated by the track-etching technique, the pore diameter was controlled in the range of 100 to 250 nm by adjusting the etching time. The results show that these EO pumps can provide high flow rates at low applied vo...

Anisotropic wet-chemical etching of silicon in alkaline solutions is a key technology in the fabrication of sensors and actuators. In this technology, etching through masks is used for fast and reproducible shaping of micromechanical structures. The etch rates RMhklN depend mainly on composition and temperature of the etchant. In a plot of etch rate versus orientation, there is always a deep, c...

A new mathematical model based on the total concentration approach is proposed for modeling wet chemical etching process. The proposed mathematical model is a fixed domain formulation of the etching problem. The governing equation based on the total concentration includes the interface condition too. The total concentration of etchant includes the reacted and the unreacted concentration of etch...

In this paper, dry etching of silicon micro-trenches were completed with a time multiplexed inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. By change the time of etching and passivation cycles, applied electrode and coil powers, gas flow rates and the gas flow overlap due to the finite time response of the mass flow controllers, the etch rate of silicon and mask materials, aspect ratio, the profiles o...

In this work, the empirical parameterization describing the alpha particles’ track depth in CR-39 detectors is extended to describe longitudinal track profiles against etching time for protons and alpha particles. MATLAB based software is developed for this purpose. The software calculates and plots the depth, diameter, range, residual range, saturation time, and etch rate versus etching time. ...

Atmospheric pressure air plasma has been used to treat grey cotton fabrics and the effect of treatment on their desizing and wettability properties is studied using the dielectric barrier discharge plasma with air and helium gas mixture. The weight loss due to etching has been determined by gravimetric method, the surface structure observed by SEM, the wettability studied by wicking action and ...