• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.725-730
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• 1996

The key process in silicon surface micromachining is the selective etching of a sacrificial layer to release the silicon microstructure. The newly developed anhydrous HF/$CH_3$OH gas phase etching of TEOS (teraethylorthosilicate) sacrificial layers onto the polysilicon and the nitride substrates was employed to release the polysilicon microstructures. A residual product after TEOS etching onto the nitride substrate was observed on the surface, since a SiOxNy layer is formed on the TEOS/nitride interface. The polysilicon microstructures are stuck to the underlying substrate because SiOxNy layer does not vaporize. We found that the only sacrificial etching without any residual product and stiction is TEOS etching onto the polysilicon substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.153-159
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• 1997

A thermally-driven polysilicon microactuator has been fabricated using surface micromachining techniques. It consists of P-doped polysilicon as a structural layer and TEOS(tetraethylorthosilicate) oxide as a sacrificial layer. The polysilicon was annealed for the relaxation of residual stress which is the main cause to its deformation such as bending and buckling. And newly developed HF GPE(gas-phase etching) process was also employed to eliminate the troublesome stiction problem using anhydrous HF gas and CH$_{3}$OH vapor, and successfully fabricated the microactuators. The actuation is incurred by the thermal expansion due to the current flow in the active polysilicon cantilever, which motion is amplified by lever mechanism. The moving distance of polysilicon microactuator was experimentally conformed as large as 21 .mu. m at the input voltage level of 10V and 50Hz square wave. The actuating characteris- tics are also compared with the simulalted results considering heat transfer and thermal expansion in the polysilicon layer. This microactuator technology can be utilized for the fabrication of MEMS (microelectromechanical system) such as microrelay, which requires large displacement or contact force but relatively slow response.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.29-32
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• 2009

Dense and periodic arrays of nano-sized holes were patterned in oxide thin film on GaAs substrate. To obtain the nano-size patterns, self-assembling diblock copolymer was used to produce thin film of uniformly distributed parallel cylinders of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in polystyrene (PS) matrix. The PMMA cylinders were removed with UV expose and acetic acid rinse to produce PS nanotemplate. By reactive ion etching, pattern of the PS template was transferred to under laid silicon oxide layer. Transferred patterns were reached to the GaAs substrate by controlling the dry etching time. We confirmed the achievement of etching through the removing oxide layer and observation of GaAs substrate surface. Optimized etching time was 90 to 100 sec. Pore sizes of the nanopattern in the silicon oxide layer were 20~22 nm.