• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2014

In this paper, the effects of a nonionic surfactant on the etch uniformity and the etch profile during the wet-etching process of high-purity aluminum were investigated for the fabrication of uniform micropattern arrays. To improve the surface roughness of a high-purity aluminum plate, a mechanical lapping process and an electrolytic polishing process were used. After electrolytic polishing process, the surface roughness, Ra, of the high-purity aluminum plate was improved from $1.25{\mu}m$ to $0.02{\mu}m$. A photoresist was used as an etching mask during the aluminum etching process, where the mixture of phosphoric acid, acetic acid, nitric acid, a nonionic surfactant and water was used as the aluminum etchant. Different amounts of the Triton X-100 nonionic surfactant were added to the aluminum etchant to investigate the effect of a nonionic surfactant during the wet-etching process of high-purity aluminum. The etch rate and the etch profile were measured by an optical interferometer and a scanning electron microscope.