Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-10-2017

Abstract

In this work the authors report on the controlled electrochemical etching of high-aspect-ratio (from 5 to 100) structures in silicon at the highest etching rates (from 3 to 10 µm min−1) at room temperature. This allows silicon microfabrication entering a previously unattainable region where etching of high-aspect-ratio structures (beyond 10) at high etching rate (over 3 µm min−1) was prohibited for both commercial and research technologies. Addition of an oxidant, namely H2O2, to a standard aqueous hydrofluoric (HF) acid electrolyte is used to dramatically change the stoichiometry of the silicon dissolution process under anodic biasing without loss of etching control accuracy at the higher depths (up to 200 µm). The authors show that the presence of H2O2 reduces the valence of the dissolution process to 1, thus rendering the electrochemical etching more effective, and catalyzes the etching rate by opening a more efficient path for silicon dissolution with respect to the well-known Gerischer mechanism, thus increasing the etching speed at both shorter and higher depths.

Publication Title

Advanced Functional Materials

ISSN

1616-301X

Publisher

Wiley

Volume

27

Issue

6

DOI

10.1002/adfm.201770035

Comments

article number 1604310

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1604310-Frontispiece.pdf (1648 kB)
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