Etching is used in microfabrication to chemically remove layers from the surface of a wafer during manufacturing.

Etching is a critically important process module, and every wafer undergoes many etching steps before it is complete. For many etch steps, part of the wafer is protected from the etchant by a "masking" material which resists etching. In some cases, the masking material is a photoresist which has been patterned using photolithography. Other situations require a more durable mask, such as silicon nitride. If the etch is intended to make a cavity in a material, the depth of the cavity may be controlled approximately using the etching time and the known etch rate. More often, though, etching must entirely remove the top layer of a multilayer structure, without damaging the underlying or masking layers. The etching system's ability to do this depends on the ratio of etch rates in the two materials (selectivity). Some etches undercut the masking layer and form cavities with sloping sidewalls. The distance of undercutting is called bias. Etchants with large bias are called isotropic, because they erode the substrate equally in all directions. Modern processes greatly prefer anisotropic etches, because they produce sharp, well-controlled features. Yellow: layer to be removed; blue: layer to remain Selectivity 1. A poorly selective etch removes the top layer, but also attacks the underlying material. 2. A highly selective etch leaves the underlying material unharmed.

Red: masking layer; yellow: layer to be removed Isotropy 1. A perfectly isotropic etch produces round sidewalls. 2. A perfectly anisotropic etch produces vertical sidewalls.

The two fundamental types of etchants are liquid-phase ("wet") and plasma-phase ("dry"). Each of these exists in several varieties. Wet etching The first etching processes used liquid-phase ("wet") etchants. The wafer can be immersed in a bath of etchant, which must be agitated to achieve good process control. For instance,buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) is used commonly to etch silicon dioxide over a silicon substrate. Different specialised etchants can be used to characterise the surface etched. Wet etchants are usually isotropic, which leads to large bias when etching thick films. They also require the disposal of large amounts of toxic waste. For these reasons, they are seldom used in state -of-the-art processes. However, the photographic developer used for photoresist resembles wet etching.

As an alternative to immersion, single wafer machines use the Bernoulli principle to employ a gas (usually, pure nitrogen) to cushion and protect one side of the wafer while etchant is applied to the other side. It can be done to either the front side or back side. The etch chemistry is dispensed on the top side when in the machine and the bottom side is not affected. This etch method is particularly effective just before "backend" processing (BEOL), where wafers are normally very much thinner after wafer backgrinding, and very sensitive to thermal or mechanical stress. Etching a thin layer of even a few micrometres will remove microcracks produced during backgrinding resulting in the wafer having dramatically increased strength and flexibility without breaking. Anisotropic wet etching (Orientation dependent etching)

An anisotropic wet etch on a silicon wafer creates a cavity with a trapezoidal cross-section. The bottom of the cavity is a <100> plane (see Miller indices), and the sides are <111> planes. The blue material is an etch mask, and the green material is silicon. Some wet etchants etch crystalline materials at very different rates depending upon which crystal face is exposed. In single-crystal materials (e.g. silicon wafers), this effect can allow very high anisotropy, as shown in the figure. Several anisotropic wet etchants are available for silicon, all of them hot aqueous caustics. For instance, potassium hydroxide (KOH) displays an etch rate selectivity 400 times higher in <100> crystal directions than in <111> directions. EDP (an aqueous solution of ethylene diamineand pyrocatechol), displays a <100>/<111> selectivity of 17X, does not etch silicon dioxide as KOH does, and also displays high selectivity between lightly doped and heavily boron-doped (p-type) silicon. Use of these etchants on wafers that already contain CMOS integrated circuitsrequires protecting the circuitry, for example using the Protek films recently introduced by Brewer Science. KOH may introduce mobilepotassium ions into silicon dioxide, and EDP is highly corrosive and carcinogenic, so care is required in their use. Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) presents a safer alternative than EDP, with a 37X selectivity between <100> and <111> planes in silicon. Etching a (100) silicon surface through a rectangular hole in a masking material, for example a hole in a layer of silicon nitride, creates a pit with flat sloping <111>-oriented sidewalls and a flat <100>-oriented bottom. The <111>-oriented sidewalls have an angle to the surface of the wafer of:

If the etching is continued "to completion", i.e. until the flat bottom disappears, the pit becomes a trench with a V-shaped cross section. If the original rectangle was a perfect square, the pit when etched to completion displays a pyramidal shape. The undercut, , under an edge of the masking material is given by:

, where Rxxx is the etch rate in the <xxx> direction, T is the etch time, D is the etch depth and S is the anisotropy of the material and etchant.

Plasma etching Modern VLSI processes avoid wet etching, and use plasma etching instead. Plasma etchers can operate in several modes by adjusting the parameters of the plasma. Ordinary plasma etching operates between 0.1 and 5 Torr. (This unit of pressure, commonly used in vacuum engineering, equals approximately 133.3 pascals.) The plasma produces energetic free radicals, neutrally charged, that react at the surface of the wafer. Since neutral particles attack the wafer from all angles, this process is isotropic. Plasma etching can be isotropic, i.e., exhibiting a lateral undercut rate on a patterned surface approximately the same as its downward etch rate, or can be anisotropic, i.e., exhibiting a smaller lateral undercut rate than its downward etch rate. Such anisotropy is maximized in deep reactive ion etching. The use of the term anisotropy for plasma etching should not be conflated with the use of the same term when referring to orientation-dependent etching. The source gas for the plasma usually contains small molecules rich in chlorine or fluorine. For instance, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 ) etches silicon andaluminium, and trifluoromethane etches silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. A plasma containing oxygen is used to oxidize ("ash") photoresist and facilitate its removal. Ion milling, or sputter etching, uses lower pressures, often as low as 10-4 Torr (10 mPa). It bombards the wafer with energetic ions of noble gases, often Ar+, which knock atoms from the substrate by transferring momentum. Because the etching is performed by ions, which approach the wafer approximately from one direction, this process is highly anisotropic. On the other hand, it tends to display poor selectivity. Reactive-ion etching (RIE) operates under conditions intermediate between sputter and plasma etching (between 10-3 and 10-1 Torr). Deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) modifies the RIE technique to produce deep, narrow features. Simplified illustration of dry etching using positive photoresist during a photolithography process in semiconductor microfabrication. Note: Not to scale.

Spin coating is a procedure used to apply uniform thin films to flat substrates. In short, an excess amount of a solution is placed on the substrate, which is then rotated at high speed in order to spread the fluid by centrifugal force. A machine used for spin coating is called a spin coater, or simply spinner. Rotation is continued while the fluid spins off the edges of the substrate, until the desired thickness of the film is achieved. The applied solvent is usually volatile, and simultaneously evaporates. So, the higher the angular speed of spinning, the thinner the film. The thickness of the film also depends on the concentration of the solution and the solvent. Spin coating is widely used in microfabrication, where it can be used to create thin films with thicknesses below 10 nm. It is used intensively inphotolithography, to deposit layers of photoresist about 1 micrometre thick. Photoresist is typically spun at 20 to 80 revolutions per second for 30 to 60 seconds. Owing to the low values of thickness which can be achieved using spin coating methods, this method is often employed in the fabrication of transparent Titanium dioxide thin films on quartz or glass substrates [1], such thin film coatings may exhibit self cleaning and self sterilizing properties. Stages of spin coating Although different engineers count things differently, there are four distinct stages to the spin coating process.

Deposition of the coating fluid onto the wafer or substrate

This can be done by using a nozzle and pouring the coating solution or by spraying it onto the surface. A substantial excess of coating solution is usually applied compared to the amount that is required.

Acceleration of the substrate up to its final, desired, rotation speed Spinning of the substrate at a constant rate; fluid viscous forces dominate the fluid thinning behavior Spinning of the substrate at a constant rate; solvent evaporation dominates the coating thinning behavior

LIGA is

a German acronym for Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung (Lithography, Electroplating, and Molding) that describes a fabrication technology used to create high-aspect-ratio microstructures.

Overview There are two main LIGA-fabrication technologies, X-Ray LIGA, which uses X-rays produced by a synchrotron to create high-aspect ratio structures, and UV LIGA, a more accessible method which uses ultraviolet light to create structures with relatively low aspect ratios

The notable characteristics of X-ray LIGA-fabricated structures include:

high aspect ratios on the order of 100:1 parallel side walls with a flank angle on the order of 89.95 smooth side walls with Ra = 10 nm, suitable for optical mirrors structural heights from tens of micrometers to several millimeters structural details on the order of micrometers over distances of centimeters

X-Ray LIGA LIGA was one of the first major techniques to allow on-demand manufacturing of high-aspect-ratio structures (structures that are much taller than wide) with lateral precision below one micrometer. In the process, an X-ray sensitive polymer photoresist, typically PMMA, bonded to an electrically conductive substrate, is exposed to parallel beams of high-energy X-rays from a synchrotron radiation source through a mask partly covered with a strong X-ray absorbing material. Chemical removal of exposed (or unexposed) photoresist results in a three-dimensional structure, which can be filled by the electrodeposition of metal. The resist is chemically stripped away to produce a metallic mold insert. The mold insert can be used to produce parts in polymers or ceramics through injection molding. The LIGA technique's unique value is the precision obtained by the use of deep X-ray lithography (DXRL). The technique enables microstructures with high aspect ratios and high precision to be fabricated in a variety of materials (metals, plastics, and ceramics). Many of its practitioners and users are associated with or are located close to synchrotron facilities.

UV LIGA UV LIGA utilizes an inexpensive ultraviolet light source, like a mercury lamp, to expose a polymer photoresist, typically SU-8. Because heating and transmittance are not an issue in optical masks, a simple chromium mask can be substituted for the technically sophisticated X-ray mask. These reductions in complexity make UV LIGA much cheaper and more accessible than its X-ray counterpart. However, UV LIGA is not as effective at producing precision molds and is thus used when cost must be kept low and very high aspect ratios are not required.

Synchrotron Radiation Wavelength is 0.2 to 0.6 nm At shorter wavelengths, diffusion of photoelectrons lowers resolution High resolution Fabricate 400 m structures with 0.2 m accuracy Large depth of focus Expensive Special mask materials low-Z materials (e. g. Be, C, Si) are transparent High-Z materials (e. g. W. Au, Ta) are absorbers (X-ray: 10-3 nm < _ < 10 nm)

Two Methods for Doping Pure Si is an intrinsic Group-IV semiconductor Add Boron (Group III) for p-type (also etch stop) Add arsenic, phosphorus, or antimony (Group Va) for n-type 1. Ion implantation High-energy ion beam implants dopant ions Material is then annealed to repair damage done by ion beam 2. Diffusion/Drive- in Dopant deposited on surface Wafer raised to temperature so high that dopant diffuses into wafer 20 of 42 Method 1: Ion Implantation Ion implantation by particle accelerator Photoresist can mask locations where no deposition is wanted Projected range Rp for photoresist is

LITHOGRAPHY

Lithography in the MEMS context is typically the transfer of a pattern to a photosensitive material by selective exposure to a radiation source such as light. A photosensitive material is a material that experiences a change in its physical properties when exposed to a radiation source. If we selectively expose a photosensitive material to radiation (e.g. by masking some of the radiation) the pattern of the radiation on the material is transferred to the material exposed, as the properties of the exposed and unexposed regions differs (as shown in figure 1).

Figure 1: Transfer of a pattern to a photosensitive material. This discussion will focus on optical lithography, which is simply lithography using a radiation source with wavelength(s) in the visible spectrum. In lithography for micromachining, the photosensitive material used is typically a photoresist (also called resist, other photosensitive polymers are also used). When resist is exposed to a radiation source of a specific a wavelength, the chemical resistance of the resist to developer solution changes. If the resist is placed in a developer solution after selective exposure to a light source, it will etch away one of the two regions (exposed or unexposed). If the exposed material is etched away by the developer and the unexposed region is resilient, the material is considered to be a positive resist (shown in figure 2a). If the exposed material is resilient to the developer and the unexposed region is etched away, it is considered to be a negative resist (shown in figure 2b). Lithography is the principal mechanism for pattern definition in micromachining. Photosensitive compounds are primarily organic, and do not encompass the spectrum of materials properties of interest to micro- machinists. However, as the technique is capable of producing fine features in an economic fashion, a photosensitive layer is often used as a temporary mask when etching an underlying layer, so that the pattern may be transferred to the underlying layer (shown in figure 3a). Photoresist may also be used as a template for patterning material deposited after lithography (shown in figure 3b). The resist is subsequently etched away, and the material deposited on the resist is "lifted off". The deposition template (lift-off) approach for transferring a pattern from resist to another layer is less common than using the resist pattern as an etch mask. The reason for this is that resist is

incompatible with most MEMS deposition processes, usually because it cannot withstand high temperatures and may act as a source of contamination.

Figure 2: a) Pattern definition in positive resist, b) Pattern definition in negative resist.

Figure 3: a) Pattern transfer from patterned photoresist to underlying layer by etching b) Pattern transfer from patterned photoresist to overlying layer by lift-off Once the pattern has been transferred to another layer, the resist is usually stripped. This is often necessary as the resist may be incompatible with further micromachining steps. It also makes the topography more dramatic, which may hamper further lithography steps. Electron beam lithography (often abbreviated as e-beam lithography) is the practice of emitting a beam of electrons in a patterned fashion across a surface covered with a film (called the resist),[1] ("exposing" the resist) and of selectively removing either exposed or non-exposed regions of the resist ("developing"). The purpose, as with photolithography, is to create very small structures in the resist that can subsequently be transferred to the substrate material, often by etching. It was developed for manufacturing integrated circuits, and is also used for creatingnanotechnology architectures. The primary advantage of electron beam lithography is that it is one of the ways to beat the diffraction limit of light and make features in thenanometer regime. This form of maskless lithography has found wide usage in photomask- making used in photolithography, low- volume production of semiconductor components, and research & development. The key limitation of electron beam lithography is throughput, i.e., the very long time it takes to expose an entire silicon wafer or glass substrate. A long exposure time leaves the user vulnerable to beam drift or instability which may occur during the exposure. Also, the turn-around time for reworking or re-design is lengthened unnecessarily if the pattern is not being c hanged the second time.