18ECE302T-MEMS Technology

Unit-1, Lecture-6: Wet etching isotropic and an-isotropic

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam

mdjawaia@ssrmist.edu.in

Department of ECE
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
Kattankulathur, Chennai

February 2, 2023
 Unit-I
MEMS
plating,
Devel-
spin-on
opment

History, Charact.
CVD: Thin film MEMS fab- Miniatur- of
LPCVD, MEMS –
deposition rication ization and
PECVD Miniatur-
scaling ization

sputtering,
evapo- Scaling
ration

Micro
Photo- Bulk and
fabrication
lithography Surface
process
Microma-
chining
EBL
Isotropic Silicon
wet based
etching MEMS
Optical
pro-
cesses

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 1 / 21

Overview of MEMS fabrication

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 2 / 21

Mojor processes in MEMS
MEMS Processes
Additive Subtractive Patterning Material modification Mechanical steps

Evaporation Plasma etching Deposition of Photoresist Ion-implantation Polishing

Dry etching

Sputtering Reactive ion etching (RIE) Photolithography Diffusion doping Wafer bonding

LPCVD Deep Reactive ion etching (DRIE) Thermal annealing Wafer dicing

Oxidation Wet chemical etching Silicon Wire bonding

Wet etching
Plating Wet chemical etching Thin-film Chip packaging

Spray-coating

Spin-coating
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 3 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching
What is Etching?
Selectively removing part of a
material/layer from the wafer.
Etching
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Etching is done either in “dry” or “wet” meth-
ods.
Wet etching uses liquid etchants with
wafers immersed in etchant solution. Very
selective, attacks only targeted film.
Wet etch is cheap and simple, but hard
to control (not reproducible), not popular
for nanofabrication for pattern transfer pur-
pose.
Dry etch uses gas phase etchants in
plasma, both chemical and physical (sput-
tering process).
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 4 / 21
Etching Process and figure of merits
Figures of merits:
Etching is consisted of 3 processes:
1 Mass transport of reactants.
2 Reaction between reactants and the film.
3 Mass transport of reaction products.
1 Etch rate: Depends on the reactants,
temperature, pressure and catalysts.
2 Etch rate uniformity: Depends on the
variation in etchant concentration,
temperature, pressure etc.
3 Anisotropy: How refectly it etched the
defined region (defined by lithograpgy).
4 Selectivity: How selectrively the process
etch only the targeted material/film.

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 5 / 21

 Isotropic and anisotropic etching
Isotropic etching Anisotropic etching
Etch rate is the same in along all directions. Etch rate is not the same along all
directions.
Anisotropy is defined as A = 1 − RL
RV

RL = RV , A = 0 RL = 0.4RV , A = 0.6
Perfectly isotropic slightly anisotropic

Perfectly isotropic =⇒ A = 0
Generally, wet-etchings are isotropic in
nature.
Silicon wet-etching can be anisotropic.
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM)
Anisotropic etching is preferred.
Dry etchings are anisotropic in nature.
18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 6 / 21
Wet etching
Wet etching was used exclusively till 1970’s
when feature size > 3 µm.
For small scale features, large etch bias
leads to significant CD (critical dimension)
loss.
For today’s IC industry, wet etching is used
for noncritical feature sizes.
Very important in MEMS to etch sacrificial
layers.
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology
The etch rate can be controlled by: re-
actants transport to the surface (depends
on chemical concentration and stirrin), re-
action rate (depends on temperature), re-
action products transport from the surface
(depends on stirring).
Advantages: high selectivity, relatively in-
expensive equipment, batch system with
high throughput, etch rate can be very fast
(many µm/min).
Disadvantages: generally isotropic profile,
high chemical usage, poor process control
(not so reproducible), excessive particulate
contamination.
February 2, 2023 7 / 21
Wet etching

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 8 / 21

Isotropic wet etching (silicon dioxide)

Etch is isotropic and easily controlled by di-

lution of HF in H2 O.

Thermally grown oxide etches at

1 120 nm/min in 6H2 O : 1HF
2 1 m/min in 49 wt% HF (i.e. undi-
luted as purchased HF).
Faster etch rate for doped or deposited ox- HF is very dangerous! Because:
ide. 1 It is not a so strong acid (you don’t feel the
High etch selectivity (S iO2 /S i) > 100. pain for diluted HF).

Buffered HF (BHF) or buffered oxide 2 Deceptive: it looks just like water.

etchant (BOE) provides consistent etch 3 It might be too late when you begin to feel
rate. the pain.

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 9 / 21

Isotropic etch (silicon)

Wet etching of Silicon is processed by ni-

tric acid HNO3 and hydrofluoric acid HF
mixtures (HNO3 may be replaced by other
strong oxidants like H2 O2 )
HNO3 partially decomposes to NO2 ,
Si + 2 NO2 + 2 H2 O −−−→ SiO2 + H2 + 2 HNO2
The HF then dissolves the SiO2 :
Si + HNO3 + 6 HF −−−→ H2 SiF6 + HNO2 +
H 2 O + H2
Excess nitric acid results in a lot of silicon
dioxide formation and etch rate becomes Region 1: High HF concentrations, reaction limited by HNO3 , follow
constant HNO3 % lines. Rate limited by oxidation, etched wafer surface
limited by HF removal of oxide (polishing). have some oxide.

CH3COOH (acetic acid) or H2O can be Region 2: High HNO3 concentrations, reaction limited by HF, follow
constant HF % lines. Rate limited by reduction, etched wafer surface
added as diluent. have more oxide.

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 10 / 21

An-isotropic wet etching of Si: overview
Orientation selective etch of silicon occur
in hydroxide solutions (like KOH) partly be-
cause of the closer packing of some orien-
tations relative to other orientations.
Density of planes: <111> > <110>, <100>
Etch rate: R(111) ≪ R(110), R(100)
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology
(100) direction etches faster than (111) di-
rection, with etch rate
R(100) = few 100 × R(111)
It is reaction rate limited
Used very widely in MEMS (micro electro
mechanical systems), since it is inexpen-
sive, fast etching and easy to control.
{100} and {110} have 2 bonds below sur-
face & 2 dangling bonds that can react.
{111} plane has three of its bonds below
surface & only one dangling bond to react
→ much slower etch rate.
February 2, 2023 11 / 21
KOH silicon etching

250 g KOH: 200 g 2-propanol: 800 g H2O

Seidel’s etching model: at 80 ◦ C
Si + 2 OH – −−−→ Si(OH)2 2+ + 2 e – 1 1 µm/min of [100] plane
Si(OH)2 2+ + 2 OH – −−−→ Si(OH)4 + 2 e – 2 Etch stops at p++ layers
Si(OH)4 + 4 e – + 4 H2 O −−−→ Si(OH)6 2 – +
2 H2 The process is not CMOS compatible!
Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 12 / 21
Design parameters

d w
tan(54.75◦ ) = w =⇒ d = tan(54.7◦ ) (1)
2 2
w = 2d tan−1 (54.7◦ ) (2)

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 13 / 21

Design equation in various conditions
Width of mask opening w, wafer thickness t, and etch time T

Ref: Liu, Chang Foundations of MEMS-Prentice Hall (2012)

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 14 / 21

Design equation in various conditions

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 15 / 21

ANISOTROPIC SILCON WET ETCHING: TMAH

TMAH ((CH3 )4 NOH) etches {111} plane at

a rate 30 to 50 slower than {100} plane.
The etch rate drops by a factor 40 in heavily
p-doped silicon
Both silicon dioxide and silicon nitride re-
main virtually unetched in TMAH, and
hence can be used as masking layers. TMAH

It is advisable to remove native silicon oxide

in HF acid prior to etching in TMAH
TMAH is an organic material, so it does not
contain any metal ions, making TMAH a po-
tentially IC-compatible etching agent.

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 16 / 21

 Problems
Question: A 2-inch Si wafer with 100-surface and Question: A 2-inch Si wafer with 100-surface and
thickness=275µm is being etched by KOH wet thickness=275µm is being etched by TMAH wet
etching method. The etch rate in 100-direction etching method. The etch rate in 100-direction is
is r100 = 50 µm/h. If the width of the opening win- r100 = 20µm/h. If the width of the opening window
dow is 1000 µm then draw the etch profile after is 100 µm then draw the etch profile after
1 1h 1 1h
2 2h 2 2h
3 5h 3 5h
4 6h 4 6h
5 10 h 5 10 h

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 17 / 21

KOH vs TMAH

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 18 / 21

MAKING A TRENCH WITH KOH/TMAH

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 19 / 21

TMAH etched structures

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 20 / 21

Examples: Bubble-jet printer nozzle and AFM cantilever tip
Bubble-jet printer nozzle

1 4 AFM cantilever tip

2
5

Dr. Md Jawaid Alam (SRM) 18ECE302T-MEMS Technology February 2, 2023 21 / 21