Anisotropic wet etching silicon tips of small opening angle in KOH solution with the additions of I2/KI
✍ Scribed by Jianqiang Han; Shaoyong Lu; Qing Li; Xiaolu Li; Jiangying Wang
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 667 KB
- Volume
- 152
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0924-4247
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✦ Synopsis
Etching silicon tips in potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution has the advantages of simplicity, easy to handle, low-cost and homogeneous etching rate of the (1 0 0) crystal plane. But the opening angle of silicon tips etched in pure KOH solution or KOH solution saturated with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) addition is usually greater than 40 • before sharpening, which is not suitable for probing samples with steep trenches and inclined side walls. This paper presents a novel method of etching silicon tips of small opening angle employing anisotropic wet etching in KOH solution with the addition of I 2 /KI. The silicon tips show a geometry similar to 'rocket tip' which can only be fabricated by dry etching before and fit for probing samples with deep trenches and inclined side walls.