Development of Crystalline Anisotropic Plasma Etching for Single Crystal Silicon

在本研究中，我们提出了一种在常温下，利用普通RIE工艺对单晶硅进行晶体各向异性等离子体刻蚀，制备复杂三维硅微结构的新工艺。该工艺将传统的各向同性、传统的垂直各向异性和晶体各向异性相结合，在单台RIE机器和单掩模下实现了全干法下复杂的微结构。为了证实所提出的工艺的有效性，我们演示了用于生物应用的悬臂和微针的制造。在悬臂梁的情况下，从衬底释放的悬臂梁在传统工艺的1/5加工时间内制造。在单一的干法蚀刻设备上制备复杂的三维硅微结构是可能的。

In this study, we propose a novel fabrication process for complicated three-dimensional silicon microstructures using the crystalline anisotropic plasma etching of the single crystal silicon with an ordinary RIE process under the normal temperature. The proposed process combined of the conventional isotropic, the conventional vertical anisotropic, and the crystalline anisotropic silicon plasma etchings achieves the complicated microstructures under all dry process with single RIE machine with single mask. To confirm the validity of the proposed process, we demonstrated to fabricate a cantilever and a micro needle for bio-application. In the case of the cantilever, the cantilever released from a substrate was fabricated at 1/5 processing time of the conventional process. It is possible that the complicated three-dimensional silicon microstructures are fabricated in single dry etching equipment.