A preliminary study on chemical micro-machining of complex three-dimensional patterns on silicon substrates

Abstract

Chemical micro-machining of complex 3-dimensional (3-D) patterns of silicon substrates was preliminarily explored by the confined etchant layer technique (CELT). Through systematic investigation, we demonstrated that cysteine as a scavenger and Br-2 as an etchant can be used to etch silicon substrates. The CELT has the potential to develop into a new means of micro-machining complex 3-D patterns on silicon substrates. However, due to the highly corrosive property of the chemicals used for the silicon etched system, great effort must be made to overcome these problems including the mold electrode with high chemical stability

Three-dimensional electrochemical microfabrication of n-GaAs using l-cystine as a scavenger

“…In previous studies [14][15][16], a small mold with an area <1 mm 2 was often used. However, it is much more difficult to adjust the parallelity between the workpiece and the mold when the mold is large.…”

“…A complete negative copy of the 3D pattern of the mold can be fabricated if the mold is continuously approaching the substrate. Therefore, in principle, CELT can be applied to different kinds of substrates, including metals [13] and semiconductors [14][15][16], regardless of the conductivity of the substrates, especially on gallium arsenide (GaAs), which has a wide application in high-speed and high-temperature components and optoelectronic devices in microsystems [17][18][19][20].…”

Etching and smooth processing of GaAs surface based on the confined etchant layer technique

“…Experimental section. The machining can be achieved when the distance between electrode and workpiece is lower than a threshold value (Jiang et al, 2005;Shi et al, 2005;Zhang et al, 2006;Tang et al, 2007;Ma et al, 2007;Zhang et al, 2007). It can achieve etching pattens with high resolution, if the electrode and the workpiece remains relative rest.…”

New Strategy for Electrochemical Micropatterning of Nafion Film in Sulfuric Acid Solution

“…[36][37][38][39][40] Unfortunately, the micropatterning of functional polymers, such as Nafion film, has not yet been achieved. The controllable cleavage of carbon-carbon chains of polymers remains a major challenge.…”