Bulk Micromachining

Class 5
• Traditional fabrication techniques are drilling, milling, forging,
welding, casting, molding, stamping etc
• These techniques cannot be used for MEMS microsystems because of
extremely small size of MEMS products
• The technique used to produce these products are called
micromachining
• Three distinct micromachining techniques are used
• Surface micromachining, Bulk micromachining and LIGA process
• LIGA is an acronym for the German term for lithographie,
Galvanoformung , Abformung
• Bulk micromachining involves the removal of materials from the bulk
substrates to form the 3 dimensional geometry of the microstructures
• Bulk Micromachining is a subtractive process typically using RIE and chemical
etch on silicon wafers to remove material leaving the desired structure.
• Typical example from this process would include inkjet microchannels,
microphones and pressure sensors
• Shaping of microsystem components of size between 0.1 μm -1mm made of
tough materials such as Si is beyond any existing mechanical means
• Physical or chemical ,either by dry or wet etching are the practical solutions
• Orientation independent etching called isotropic etching and orientation
dependent anisotropic etching are the key technology
• Etching involves the exposure of a substrate covered by an etchant
protection mask to chemical etchants
• The part of the substrate that is not covered by the protective mask is
dissolved by the etchants and removed.
• Etching can undercut the part that is immediately under the protective mask
Isotropic and Anisotropic etching
• For substrates made of homogenous and isotropic materials, the chemical
etchants will attack the material uniformly in all directions.
• This orientation independent etching is called isotropic etching
• Isotropic etching is hardly desirable in micromachining because of lack of
control on the etching process
• Most substrate materials are not isotropic in their crystalline structure.
• Silicon has a diamond cubic crystal structure. Some parts in the crystal are
stronger and thus more resistant to etching
• Three planes of silicon crystal,<100>,<111>,<110> are of particular
importance in micromachining
• Two most common orientation used in IC industry are 100 and 111
• In micromachining 110 is the favored orientation
• Because in this orientation, the wafer breaks or cleaves more cleanly
than in other orientations
• 110 plane is the only plane in which one can cleave the crystal in
vertical edges
• 111 plane is the toughest plane to treat and is the least used
orientation in micromachining
• This non uniformity in mechanical strength also reflects the degree of
readiness for etching
• The material on the 111 plane is the hardest to etch
• A 400:1 ratio in etching rates for silicon in <100> to<111>
• The lattice distance between adjacent atoms are shortest for those
atoms on the (111) plane. So the attractive force between atoms is
stronger on this plane. So etching will proceed slowest
Anisotropic etching
• The (111) plane intersects (100) at a steep angle of
• When a wafer whose face coincides with the (100) plane is exposed to
etchants, different etching rates in different orientation occurs.
• A pyramid with side wall slope at exist in the finished product
• Anisotropic etching controls the shape of the etched substrates
• Etching is slower and is of the order of 1μm/min
• Etching rate is temperature sensitive
• Requires elevated temperature of the order of C which precludes the
use of many photoresistive masking materials
Wet etchants
• The common isotropic etchant for silicon is called HNA, which designates acidic
agents such as HF/HNO3/C
• Aggressively acidic mixture which will vigorously attack silicon
• It is an isotropic wet etchant, which etches silicon at a rate of 1-3 microns/minute
• These etchants can be used at room temperature
• Alkaline chemicals with pH>12 are used for anisotropic etching
• Anisotropic etchants for silicon include KOH, ethylene-diamine and pyrocatecol
(EDP), tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) and hydrazine
• In contrast to isotropic etching, anisotropic etching is a fabrication technique that
removes material in specific directions allowing for the production of geometric
characteristics such as sharp corners, flat surfaces, and deep cavities.
• Anisotropic etching is a subtractive microfabrication technique that aims to
preferentially remove a material in specific directions to obtain intricate and often
flat shapes. Wet techniques exploit the crystalline properties of a structure to etch
in directions governed by crystallographic orientation.
• From the table , it is seen that the etching rate for silicon dioxide with
KOH is 1000 times slower than that for silicon and silicon nitride is
another order slower than that for silicon dioxide
• Selectivity ratio of a material is defined as the ratio of the etching rate
of silicon to the etching rate of another material using the same etchant
• Silicon dioxide has a selectivity ratio of , meaning that this material has
an etching rate in KOH that is 1000 times slower than the etching rate
for silicon
• High selectivity ratio for silicon dioxide and silicon nitride makes these
materials suitable candidates for the masks for etching silicon substrates
• Si is used as mask layer for si substrate in KOH etchants for trenches of
moderate depth
• In deep etching use silicon nitride as mask material instead of Si
Etch stop
• An effective way to control the shape of the etched silicon substrate is
dopant controlled etch
• Doped silicon substrates, whether doped with Boron or arsenic, show
different etching rate than pure silicon
• When HNA etchants are used, p or n doped areas are dissolved significantly
faster than undoped regions
• Electrochemical etch stop is popular for controlling anisotropic etching
• Here, a lightly doped p-n junction is first produced in the silicon wafer by a
diffusion process
• The unmasked part of the p substrate face is in contact with the etchant
• Etching thus takes place until it reaches the interface of the pn junction, at
which point etching stops because of the rate difference in p and n doped
silicon
• It is possible to control the depth of etching by simply establishing pn
boundaries at desired locations