A Novel KOH Wet Etching Technique for Ultrafine Nanostructure Formation

The present study introduces a novel wet etching technique for nanostructure fabrications which usually requires low surface roughness. Using the current method, acquired profiles were smooth even in the nanoscale, which cannot be easily achieved with conventional wet or dry etching methods. As one of the most popular single crystal silicon etchant, potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution was used as a base solvent and two additives, antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) and ethyl alcohol were employed in. Four experimental parameters, concentrations of KOH, Sb2O3, and ethyl alcohol and temperature were optimized at 60 wt.%, 0.003 wt.%, 10 v/v%, and $23^{\circ}C$, respectively. Effects of additives in KOH solution were investigated on the profiles in both (110) and (111) planes of single crystal silicon wafer. The preliminary results show that additives play a critical role to decrease etch rate significantly down to ~2 nm/min resulting in smooth side wall profiles on (111) plane and enhanced surface roughness.

초정밀 나노구조물 형성을 위한 새로운 KOH 습식각 기술