• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2015

This paper reports the results of a study on the optimization of the etching profile, which is an important factor in deep-reactive-ion etching (DRIE), i.e., dry etching. Dry etching is the key processing step necessary for the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and various microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS). Large-area etching (open area > 20%) under a high-frequency (HF) condition with nonoptimized processing parameters results in damage to the etched sidewall. Therefore, in this study, optimization was performed under a low-frequency (LF) condition. The HF method, which is typically used for through-silicon via (TSV) technology, applies a high etch rate and cannot be easily adapted to processes sensitive to sidewall damage. The optimal etching profile was determined by controlling various parameters for the DRIE of a large Si wafer area (open area > 20%). The optimal processing condition was derived after establishing the correlations of etch rate, uniformity, and sidewall damage on a 6-in Si wafer to the parameters of coil power, run pressure, platen power for passivation etching, and $SF_6$ gas flow rate. The processing-parameter-dependent results of the experiments performed for optimization of the etching profile in terms of etch rate, uniformity, and sidewall damage in the case of large Si area etching can be summarized as follows. When LF is applied, the platen power, coil power, and $SF_6$ should be low, whereas the run pressure has little effect on the etching performance. Under the optimal LF condition of 380 Hz, the platen power, coil power, and $SF_6$ were set at 115W, 3500W, and 700 sccm, respectively. In addition, the aforementioned standard recipe was applied as follows: run pressure of 4 Pa, $C_4F_8$ content of 400 sccm, and a gas exchange interval of $SF_6/C_4F_8=2s/3s$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.741-744
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• 2001

This paper described on the fabrication of microstructures by DRIE(Deep Reactive Ion Etching). SOI(Si-on-insulator) electric devices with buried cavities are fabricated by SDB technology and electrochemical etch-stop. The cavity was fabricated the upper handling wafer by Si anisotropic etch technique. SDB process was performed to seal the fabricated cavity under vacuum condition at -760 mm Hg. In the SDB process, captured air and moisture inside of the cavities were removed by making channels towards outside. After annealing(1000$^{\circ}C$, 60 min.), the SDB SOI structure was thinned by electrochemical etch-stop. Finally, it was fabricated microstructures by DRIE as well as a accurate thickness control and a good flatness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.739-742
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• 2002

This paper described on the fabrication of microstructures by DRIE(deep reactive ion etching). SOI(Si-on-insulator) electric devices with buried cavities are fabricated by SDB technology and electrochemical etch-stop. The cavity was fabricated the upper handling wafer by Si anisotropic etch technique. SDB process was performed to seal the fabricated cavity under vacuum condition at -760 mmHg. In the SDB process, captured air and moisture inside of the cavities were removed by making channels towards outside. After annealing($1000^{\circ}C$, 60 min.), The SDB SOI structure was thinned by electrochemical etch-stop. Finally, it was fabricated microstructures by DRIE as well as an accurate thickness control and a good flatness.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.516-521
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• 2001

Dry etching of Si wafer and $SiO_2$ layers was performed using He/Cl$_2$ mixture plasma by diode-type reactive ion etcher (RIE) system. For Si etching, the Cl molecules react with the Si molecules on the surface and become chemically stable, indicating that the reactants need energetic ion bombardment. During the ion assisted desorption, energetic ions would damage the photoresist (PR) and produce the bad etch Si-profile. Moreover, we have examined the characteristics of the Cl-Si reaction system, and developed the new fabrication procedures with a $Cl_2$/He mixture for Si and $SiO_2$-etching. The developed novel fabrication procedure allows the RIE to be unexpensive and useful a Si deep etching system. Since the etch rate was proved to increase linearly with fHe and the selectivity of Si to $SiO_2$ etch rate was observed to be inversely proportional to fHe.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.454-454
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• 2014

Silicon microwire array is one of the promising platforms as a means for developing highly efficient solar cells thanks to the enhanced light trapping efficiency. Among the various fabrication methods of microstructures, deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process has been extensively used in fabrication of high aspect ratio microwire arrays. In this presentation, we show precisely controlled Si microwire arrays by tuning the DRIE process conditions. A periodic microdisk arrays were patterned on 4-inch Si wafer (p-type, $1{\sim}10{\Omega}cm$) using photolithography. After developing the pattern, 150-nm-thick Al was deposited and lifted-off to leave Al microdisk arrays on the starting Si wafer. Periodic Al microdisk arrays (diameter of $2{\mu}m$ and periodic distance of $2{\mu}m$) were used as an etch mask. A DRIE process (Tegal 200) is used for anisotropic deep silicon etching at room temperature. During the process, $SF_6$ and $C_4F_8$ gases were used for the etching and surface passivation, respectively. The length and shape of microwire arrays were controlled by etching time and $SF_6/C_4F_8$ ratio. By adjusting $SF_6/C_4F_8$ gas ratio, the shape of Si microwire can be controlled, resulting in the formation of tapered or vertical microwires. After DRIE process, the residual polymer and etching damage on the surface of the microwires were removed using piranha solution ($H_2SO_4:H_2O_2=4:1$) followed by thermal oxidation ($900^{\circ}C$, 40 min). The oxide layer formed through the thermal oxidation was etched by diluted hydrofluoric acid (1 wt% HF). The surface morphology of a Si microwire arrays was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Hitachi S-4800). Optical reflection measurements were performed over 300~1100 nm wavelengths using a UV-Vis/NIR spectrophotometer (Cary 5000, Agilent) in which a 60 mm integrating sphere (Labsphere) is equipped to account for total light (diffuse and specular) reflected from the samples. The total reflection by the microwire arrays sample was reduced from 20 % to 10 % of the incident light over the visible region when the length of the microwire was increased from $10{\mu}m$ to $30{\mu}m$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1069-1074
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• 2005

In this work, nano-needle structures ate formed to solve problem, related to low density of quantum dots for nano floating gate memory. Such structures ate fabricated and electrical properties' of MIS devices fabricated on the nano-structures are studied. Nano floating gate memory based on quantum dot technologies Is a promising candidate for future non-volatile memory devices. Nano-structure is fabricated by reactive ion etching using $SF_6$ and $O_2$ gases in parallel RF plasma reactor. Surface morphology was investigated after etching using scanning electron microscopy Uniform and packed deep nano-needle structure is established under optimized condition. Photoluminescence and capacitance-voltage characteristics were measured in $Al/SiO_2/Si$ with nano-needle structure of silicon. we have demonstrated that the nano-needle structure can be applicable to non-volatile memory device with increased charge storage capacity over planar structures.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2007

This paper presents a novel MEMS condenser microphone with rigid backplate to enhance acoustic characteristics. The MEMS condenser microphone consists of membrane and backplate chips which are bonded together by gold-tin (Au/Sn) eutectic solder bonding. The membrane chip has 2.5 mm${\times}$2.5 mm, $0.5{\mu}m$ thick low stress silicon nitride membrane, 2 mm${\times}$2 mm Au/Ni/Cr membrane electrode, and $3{\mu}m$ thick Au/Sn layer. The backplate chip has 2 mm${\times}$2 mm, $150{\mu}m$ thick single crystal silicon rigid backplate, 1.8 mm${\times}$1.8 mm backplate electrode, and air gap, which is fabricated by bulk micromachining and silicon deep reactive ion etching. Slots and $50-60{\mu}m$ radius circular acoustic holes to reduce air damping are also formed in the backplate chip. The fabricated microphone sensitivity is $39.8{\mu}V/Pa$ (-88 dB re. 1 V/Pa) at 1 kHz and 28 V polarization voltage. The microphone shows flat frequency response within 1 dB between 20 Hz and 5 kHz.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.16 no.12 s.117
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• pp.1272-1278
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• 2006

This paper presents a novel MEMS condenser microphone with rigid backplate to enhance acoustic characteristics. The MEMS condenser microphone consists of membrane and backplate chips which are bonded together by gold-tin(Au/Sn) eutectic solder bonding. The membrane chip has $2.5mm{\times}2.5mm$, 0.5${\mu}m$ thick low stress silicon nitride membrane, $2mm{\times}2mm$ Au/Ni/Cr membrane electrode, and 3${\mu}m$ thick Au/Sn layer. The backplate chip has $2mm{\times}2mm$, 150${\mu}m$ thick single crystal silicon rigid backplate, $1.8mm{\times}1.8mm$ backplate electrode, and air gap, which is fabricated by bulk micromachining and silicon deep reactive ion etching. Slots and $50{\sim}60{\mu}m$ radius circular acoustic holes to reduce air damping are also formed in the backplate chip. The fabricated microphone sensitivity is 39.8 ${\mu}V/Pa$(-88 dB re. 1 V/Pa) at 1 kHz and 28 V polarization voltage. The microphone shows flat frequency response within 1 dB between 20 Hz and 5 kHz.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2016

An increase in the transistor density of integrated circuit devices leads to a very high increase in heat dissipation density, which causes a long-term reliability and various thermal problems in microelectronics. In this study, liquid cooling method was investigated using straight microchannels with various metal bumps. Microchannels were fabricated on Si wafer using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), and Ag, Cu, or Cr/Au/Cu metal bumps were placed on Si wafer by a screen printing method. The surface temperature of liquid cooling structures with various metal bumps was measured by infrared (IR) microscopy. For liquid cooling with Cr/Au/Cu bumps, the surface temperature difference before and after liquid cooling was $45.2^{\circ}C$ and the power density drop was $2.8W/cm^2$ at $200^{\circ}C$ heating temperature.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.79-84
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• 2010

Formation of TSV (Through-Si-Via) with an Au seed layer and Cu filling to the via, simplification of bumping process for three dimensional stacking of Si dice were investigated. In order to produce the via holes, the Si wafer was etched by a DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) process using $SF_6$ and $C_4F_8$ plasmas alternately. The vias were 40 ${\mu}m$ in diameter, 80 ${\mu}m$ in depth, and were produced by etching for 1.92 ks. On the via side wall, a dielectric layer of $SiO_2$ was formed by thermal oxidation, and an adhesion layer of Ti, and a seed layer of Au were applied by sputtering. Electroplating with pulsed DC was applied to fill the via holes with Cu. The plating condition was at a forward pulse current density of 1000 mA/$dm^2$ for 5 s and a reverse pulse current density of 190 mA/$dm^2$ for 25 s. By using these parameters, sound Cu filling was obtained in the vias with a total plating time of 57.6 ks. Sn bumping was performed on the Cu plugs without lithography process. The bumps were produced on the Si die successfully by the simplified process without serious defect.