Design and Fabrication of DRIE-Patterned Complex Needlelike Silicon Structures

This paper reports the design and fabrication of high-aspect-ratio needlelike silicon structures that can have complex geometry. The structures are hundreds of micrometers tall with submicrometer-sharp protrusions, and they are fabricated using a series of passivated and unpassivated deep reactive-i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gassend, Blaise, Velasquez-Garcia, Luis Fernando, Akinwande, Akintunde Ibitayo
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70936
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3001-9223
Description
Summary:This paper reports the design and fabrication of high-aspect-ratio needlelike silicon structures that can have complex geometry. The structures are hundreds of micrometers tall with submicrometer-sharp protrusions, and they are fabricated using a series of passivated and unpassivated deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) steps. A simple model is presented to predict the geometry of the structure based on the etch mask and the etch sequence. Model predictions are in good qualitative agreement with fabrication results, making it a useful design tool. The model is compared with literature reports on tapered DRIE.