A dual-axis micromechanical probe that combines a double cantilever and torsion beams is presented. This probe can reduce the mechanical cross-talk between the lateral and vertical force detections. In addition, dual-axis forces can be detected by measuring the dual-axis displacement of the probe end using the optical lever-based method used in conventional friction force microscopes (FFMs). In this paper, the mechanical design of the probe, the details of the fabrication method, FFM performance, and calibration of the friction force are discussed. The mechanical design and the microfabrication method for probes that can provide a force resolution of the order of 1nN without mechanical cross-talk are presented. Calibration of the lateral force signal is possible by using the relationship between the lateral force and the piezodisplacement at the onset of the probe scanning. The micromechanical probe enables simultaneous and independent detection of atomic and friction forces. This leads to accurate investigation of nanotribological phenomena and visualization of the distribution of the friction properties, which helps the identification of the material properties.
The mechanism of selective corrugation removal by anisotropic wet etching-which reduces a periodic corrugation, called 'scalloping', formed on the sidewalls of microstructures by the Bosch process in deep reactive-ion etching (D-RIE)-was investigated. In particular, the corrugation-removal mechanism was analyzed by using the etching rate distribution pattern, and two equations for predicting the corrugation-removal time by the etching were derived. A Si{1 0 0} wafer was first etched by D-RIE at a depth of 29.4 μm (60 cycles) to form the corrugation on the sidewall surface. The height and pitch of the corrugation were 196 and 494 nm, respectively. Selective removal of the corrugation by using 50% KOH (40 • C) was experimentally tried. The corrugation formed on Si{1 0 0} sidewall surfaces was gradually reduced in size as the etching progressed, and it was completely removed after 5 min of etching. Similarly, the corrugation formed on a Si{1 1 0} sidewall surface was also selectively removed by KOH etching (etching time: 3 min). The roughness value of the sidewall surface was reduced from 17.6 nm to a few nanometers by the etching. These results confirm that the corrugation-removal mechanism using anisotropic wet etching can be explained in terms of the distribution pattern of etching rate.
In this paper, etching anisotropy is evaluated for a number of different crystallographic orientations of silicon in a 0.1 vol% Triton-X-100 added 25 wt% tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution using a silicon hemisphere. The research is primarily aimed at developing advanced applications of wet etching in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The etching process is carried out at different temperatures in the range of 61-81 • C. The etching results of silicon hemisphere and different shapes of three-dimensional structures in {1 0 0}-and {1 1 0}-Si surfaces are analyzed. Significantly important anisotropy, different from a traditional etchant (e.g. pure KOH and TMAH), is investigated to extend the applications of the wet etching process in silicon bulk micromachining. The similar etching behavior of exact and vicinal {1 1 0} and {1 1 1} planes in TMAH + Triton is utilized selectively to remove the scalloping from deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) etched profiles. The direct application of the present research is demonstrated by fabricating a cylindrical lens with highly smooth etched surface finish. The smoothness of a micro-lens at different locations is measured qualitatively by a scanning electron microscope and quantitatively by an atomic force microscope. The present paper provides a simple and effective fabrication method of the silicon micro-lens for optical MEMS applications.
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