Direct Nanomachining on Semiconductor Wafer By Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Abstract

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is one of the most important instrumental methods of modern electrochemistry due to its high spatial and temporal resolution. We introduced SECM into nanomachining by feeding the electrochemical modulations of the tip electrode back to the positioning system, and we demonstrated that SECM is a versatile nanomachining technique on semiconductor wafers using electrochemically induced chemical etching. The removal profile was correlated to the applied tip current when the tip was held stationary and when it was moving slowly (<20 μm s−1), and it followed Faraday's law. Both regular and irregular nanopatterns were translated into a spatially distributed current by the homemade digitally controlled SECM instrument. The desired nanopatterns were “sculpted” directly on a semiconductor wafer by SECM direct‐writing mode. The machining accuracy was controlled to the sub‐micrometer and even nanometer scales. This advance is expected to play an important role in electrochemical nanomachining for 3D micro/nanostructures in the semiconductor industry.

Nanopatterning Technologies of 2D Materials for Integrated Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices

“…[31] Currently various direct nanopatterning technologies based on mechanical probes and lasers have been successively reported for 2D materials. [141,193] Further development of novel photoresist-free methods with less time consumption and higher precision will be of great promise in the future.…”

“…To exclude the influence of photoresist residues on the surface of 2D materials, direct writing technologies are recently explored for 2D nanopattern fabrication. [141][142][143] Probes and lasers are two essential direct writing tools (Figure 1f,g). For instance, scanning probe lithography (SPL) has been recently used to directly pattern single-layer TMDs without using the sacrificial resists.…”

Rational shaping of hydrogel by electrodeposition under fluid mechanics for electrochemical writing on complex shaped surfaces at microscale

“…The early works have been reviewed [43,48,49]. State-of-the-art developments allow generation of patterns of nanometer resolution, either by precise control of electrochemical machining on SECM [50,51] or by meniscus-confined deposition [52,53].…”

Chemical Etching Processes at the Dynamic GaAs/Electrolyte Interface in the Electrochemical Direct-Writing Micromachining

“…All the ECICE experiments were performed on a homemade electrochemical micro/nanomachining instrument with a nanomanipulation system as reported previously. ,, The Pt disk electrodes, which have radii of 50, 100, and 250 μm, were polished, sharpened, and used as SECM tip electrodes. An optical microscope (BX-51, Olympus, Japan) was employed to characterize their profile and quality.…”

“…36,37 Recently, we developed an electrochemical direct-writing micromachining technique based on the principle of ECICE and the instrumental method of SECM, which is capable of making arbitrary 3D-MNSs by feeding electrochemical modulations to the positioning system of SECM. 38 To make it more competitive in microfabrication, here, we systematically discuss the effects of all the above-mentioned factors on the etching profiles and propose a numerical model to predict the electrochemical micromachining results on GaAs wafers.…”