Abstract
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 $2.5\mum$.
