• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.37-40
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• 2003

We have studied micro-machining technologies to fabricate parts and sensors used in the semiconductor equipment. The studies were based on the silicon integrated circuit processes, and composed of the anisotropic etching of single crystal silicon to fabricate a membrane structure for hot and cold junctions in the infrared absorber. KOH and TMAH were used as etching solutions for the anisotropic wet etching for membrane structure formation. The etching characteristic was observed for the each solution, and etching rate was measured depending upon the temperature and concentration of the etching solution. The different characteristics were observed according to pattern directions and etchant concentration. The pattern was made to incline $45^{\circ}$ on the primary flat, and optimum etching property was obtained in the case of 30 wt% and $90^{\circ}C$ of KOH etching solution for the formation of the membrane structure.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1974-1976
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• 1996

An electrostatically driven comb actuator with $525{\mu}m$ height was fabricated using (110) Si anisotropic etching in the Potassium Hydroxide(KOH) solution. The etch-rate and etch-rate ratio are strongly dependent on the weight % and temperature of KOH solution. We developed the optimal condition for the anisotropic etching on (110) wafer with varying these conditions. The force that the comb-drive actuator generates is inversely proportional to the distance of gap and proportional to the height of the comb electrodes. The electrodes must have the high aspect ratio. The (110) Si anisotropic etching is very useful to get a high aspect ratio structure.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.367-374
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• 2000

This paper presents a method to fabricate freestanding structures by (100) silicon anisotropic etching and nickel electroless plating. The electroless plating process is simpler than the electroplating, and provides good coating uniformity and improved mechanical properties. Furthermore, the (100) silicon anisotropic etching in KOH solution with being aligned to <100> direction provides vertical (100) sidewalls on etched (100) surface. In this paper, the effects of the nickel electroless plating condition on the properties of electroless plated metal structures are investigated to apply fabrication of micro structures and then various micro structures are fabricated by nickel electroless plating. And then, the structures are released by silicon anisotropic etching in KOH solution with a large gap between the structure and the substrate. The fabricated cantilever structures are $210\mum$. wide, $5\mum$. thick and $15\mum$. over the silicon substrate, and the comb structure has the comb electrodes which are $4\mum$. wide and $4.3\mum$. thick separated by$1\mum$. It is released by silicon anisotropic etching in KOH solution. The gap between the structure and the substrate is $2.5\mum$.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and information Science
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.108-113
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• 1997

In this paper, the optimum condition of (110) Si etching with the potassium hydroxide(KOH) etchant is presented. Although several researches on (110) Si anisotropic etching have been studied, there has been lack of effects of mask quality and etching conditions on the selectivity and the roughness o the etched surface. Three kinds of masks (film, emulsion and E-beam mask) were used in order to verify the effect of etching properties. Anisotropic bulk etching depends on the crystalline orientation and the concentration and temperature of the etchant. In order to investigate the effect of etching conditions on selectivity and the roughness of the etched surface, the concentration of the etchant was varied from 35 to 45 per cent in weight with increments by 5 per cent and the temperature was changed from 70 to 90$^{\circ}C$ with increments by 10$^{\circ}C$. The combination of the temperature of 70$^{\circ}C$ and the concentration of 40wt.% was found to be the optimum etching condition for high selectivity. Etched surfaces show minimum surfaces show minimum surface roughness at a temperature of 80$^{\circ}C$ and a concentation of 40wt.%. Comb structures with various comb widths were fabricated and the lengths of the combs wree measured with several etching time durations. A micro comb structure 525$\mu\textrm{m}$ high was fabricated for MEMS application.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.449-455
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• 1997

The anisotropic etching behavior of single crystal silicon were studied in aqueous KOH solution. N-type (100) oriented single crystal silicon wafers were used for the study, and the $SiO_2$ layer, whose etching rate is known to be much slower than that of silicon in the KOH solution, was used as a mask for the silicon etching. The silicon etching rate and the etching properties are shown to be a function of etchant temperature uniformity, circulation speed, and circulation direction of the etchant as well as the etchant concentration and the temperature. The etching rate is increased as the temperature is increased from $10\mu \textrm{m}/hr$ to $250\mu \textrm{m}/hr$ in the range of $50^{\circ}C~105^{\circ}C$. Hillock density and height is observed to be correlated with the etchant concentration and the etch temperature. The variation of the hillock density was explained by the ratio between the etching rate of (100) orientation and that of (111) orientation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.07b
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• pp.1250-1253
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• 1994

(100), (110) and (111) Si wafers are etched by isotropic etching method, anisotropic etching method using KOH etchant and EPW etchant and combined two-step etching method to compare the results. Isotopic etching method is effective in fabrication of wedge-shaped tips, especially (110) Si. Anisotropic etching method of (100) Si using EPW etchant can fabricate sharp cone-shaped tips and isotropic etching after anisotropic etching of (100) Si can fabricate wedge-shaped tips.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.481-486
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• 1997

This paper describes the anisotropic etching characteristics of Si in acqueous TMAH/IPA solutions. The etch rates of (100) oriented Si crystal planes decrease with increasing TMAH concentration and IPA concentration. Etchant concentration and etch temperature have a large effect on hillock density. Hillock density strongly increase with lower TMAH concentration and higher etch temperature. The etched (100) planes are covered by pyramidal-shaped hillocks below TMAH 15 wt.%, but very smooth surface is obtained TMAH 25 wt.%. The addition of IPA to TMAH solution leads to smoother surfaces of sidewalls etched planes. Undercutting ratio of pure TMAH solution is much higher than KOH. But, addition of IPA to TMAh the underrcutting ratio reduces by a factor of 3∼4. Therefore, acqueous TMAH/IPA solution is able to use as anisotropic etchant of Si because of full compability with IC fabrication process.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2002

For a formation of membrane structures, single crystal silicon wafers have been anisotropically etched with solutions of KOH and KOH-IPA. The etching rate was observed to be strongly dependent upon the etchant temperature and concentration. Mask patterns for the etching experiment was aligned to incline $45^{\circ}$on the primary flat of the silicon wafer. The different etching characteristics were observed according to pattern directions and etchant concentration. When the KOH concentration was fixed to 20 wt%, the U-groove etching shape was observed for the etching temperature of above $80^{\circ}C$, and V-groove shapes observed at below $80^{\circ}C$. Hillocks, which were generated at the etched silicon surfaces, has been decreased as the increasing of the etchant temperature and concentration.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.77-81
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• 2020

Silicon wafer etching in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication is challenging to form 3-D structures. Well known Si-wet etch of silicon employs potassium hydroxide (KOH), tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). However, the existing silicon wet etching process has a fatal disadvantage that etching of the back side of the wafer is hard to avoid. In this study, a wet etching bath for 150 mm wafers was designed to prevent back-side etching of silicon wafer, and we demonstrated the optimized process recipe to have anisotropic wet etching of silicon wafer without any damage on the backside. We also presented the design of wet bath for 300 mm wafer processing as a promising process development.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.148-148
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• 1996