• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.199-200
• /
• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.279-280
• /
• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2011.06a
• /
• pp.795-796
• /
• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2011.06a
• /
• pp.253-254
• /
• 2011

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.213-217
• /
• 2013

As commercial atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes made of Si and $Si_3N_4$ have low stiffness, it is difficult to induce sufficient elastic deformation on the surface of a specimen in a tapping mode. Therefore, high-guality phase contrast images can not obtained. On the other hand, a tungsten AFM probe has relatively higher stiffness than a commercial AFM probe. Accordingly, it is expected to provide an enhanced phase contrast image, which is an effective tool for achieving a better understanding of the micromechanical properties of worn surfaces and wear mechanisms. In this study, on electrochemical etching method was optimized to fabricate tungsten probe tips for an AFM. Electrochemical etching was performed by applying pulse waves with a 20% duty cycle at various voltages instead of only a DC voltage, which has been commonly used.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.53-57
• /
• 2014

We describe the preparation of highly-ordered etching pits on the Nb foil through a micromachining. The effects of electrochemical polishing on the formation of uniformly-patterned protective epoxy layer was investigated. Unlike the previous process using $O_2$ plasma, well-ordered etched pits were prepared without any dry processes. As a result, the Nb foil with the well-ordered pits of $10{\mu}m{\times}5{\mu}m$ could be obtained by electrochemical etching in methanolic electrolytes for 10 min.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.418-418
• /
• 2008

The electrochemical etching of silicon in HF-based solutions is known to form various types of porous structures. Porous structures are generally classified into three categories according to pore sizes: micropore (below 2 nm in size), mesopore (2 ~ 50 nm), and macropore (above 50 nm). Recently, the formation of macropores has attracted increasing interest because of their promising characteristics for an wide scope of applications such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), chemical sensors, biotechnology, photonic crystals, and photovoltaic application. One of the promising applications of macropores is in the field of MEMS. Anisotropic etching is essential step for fabrication of MEMS. Conventional wet etching has advantages such as low processing cost and high throughput, but it is unsuitable to fabricate high-aspect-ratio structures with vertical sidewalls due to its inherent etching characteristics along certain crystal orientations. Reactive ion dry etching is another technique of anisotropic etching. This has excellent ability to fabricate high-aspect-ratio structures with vertical sidewalls and high accuracy. However, its high processing cost is one of the bottlenecks for widely successful commercialization of MEMS. In contrast, by using electrochemical etching method together with pre-patterning by lithographic step, regular macropore arrays with very high-aspect-ratio up to 250 can be obtained. The formed macropores have very smooth surface and side, unlike deep reactive ion etching where surfaces are damaged and wavy. Especially, to make vertical microwire or nanowire arrays (aspect ratio = over 1:100) on silicon wafer with top-down photolithography, it is very difficult to fabricate them with conventional dry etching. The electrochemical etching is the most proper candidate to do it. The pillar structures are demonstrated for n-type silicon and the formation mechanism is well explained, while such a experimental results are few for p-type silicon. In this report, In order to understand the roles played by the kinds of etching solution and mask patterns in the formation of microwire arrays, we have undertaken a systematic study of the solvent effects in mixtures of HF, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), iso-propanol, and mixtures of HF with water on the structure formation on monocrystalline p-type silicon with a resistivity with 10 ~ 20 $\Omega{\cdot}cm$. The different morphological results are presented according to mask patterns and etching solutions.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.218-223
• /
• 2014

This paper presents a method of controlling the stiffness of a tungsten probe for an atomic force microscope (AFM) in order to provide high-quality phase contrast images in accordance with sample characteristics. While inducing sufficient deformation on sample surfaces with commercial Si or $Si_3N_4$ probes is difficult because of their low stiffness, a tungsten probe fabricated by electrochemical etching with appropriately high stiffness can generate relatively large elastic deformation without damaging sample surfaces. The fabrication of the tungsten probe involves two separate procedures. The first procedure involves immersing a tungsten wire with both ends bent parallel to the surface of an electrolyte and controlling the stiffness of the tungsten cantilever by decreasing its diameter using electrochemical etching in the direction of the central axis. The second procedure involves immersing the end of the etched tungsten cantilever in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the electrolyte and fabricating a tungsten tip with a tip radius of 20-50 nm via the necking phenomenon. The latter etching process applies pulse waves every 0.25 seconds to the manufactured tip to improve its yield. Finite element analysis (FEA) of the stiffness of the tungsten probe as a function of its diameter showed that the stiffness of the tungsten probes greatly varies from 56 N/m to 3501 N/m according to the cantilever diameters from $30{\mu}m$ to $100{\mu}m$, respectively. Thus, the proposed etching method is effective for producing a tungsten probe having specific stiffness for optimal use with an AFM and certain samples.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.81.2-81.2
• /
• 2012

To fabricate a metal mold for injection molding, hot-embossing and imprinting process, mechanical machining, electro discharge machining (EDM), electrochemical machining (ECM), laser process and wet etching ($FeCl_3$ process) have been widely used. However it is hard to get precise structure with these processes. Electrochemical etching has been also employed to fabricate a micro structure in metal mold. A through mask electrochemical micro machining (TMEMM) is one of the electrochemical etching processes which can obtain finely precise structure. In this process, many parameters such as current density, process time, temperature of electrolyte and distance between electrodes should be controlled. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the result because it has low reliability and reproducibility. To improve it, we investigated this process numerically and experimentally. To search the relation between processing parameters and the results, we used finite element simulation and the commercial finite element method (FEM) software ANSYS was used to analyze the electric field. In this study, it was supposed that the anodic dissolution process is predicted depending on the current density which is one of major parameters with finite element method. In experiment, we used stainless steel (SS304) substrate with various sized square and circular array patterns as an anode and copper (Cu) plate as a cathode. A mixture of $H_2SO_4$, $H_3PO_4$ and DIW was used as an electrolyte. After electrochemical etching process, we compared the results of experiment and simulation. As a result, we got the current distribution in the electrolyte and line profile of current density of the patterns from simulation. And etching profile and surface morphologies were characterized by 3D-profiler(${\mu}$-surf, Nanofocus, Germany) and FE-SEM(S-4800, Hitachi, Japan) measurement. From comparison of these data, it was confirmed that current distribution and line profile of the patterns from simulation are similar to surface morphology and etching profile of the sample from the process, respectively. Then we concluded that current density is more concentrated at the edge of pattern and the depth of etched area is proportional to current density.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2013

This review article summarizes metal-assisted chemical etching (MAC etch or MACE), an anisotropic etching method for Si, and describes principles, main factors, and recent achievements in literature. In 1990, it was discovered that, with metal catalyst on surface and $H_2O_2$/HF as etchant, Si substrate can be etched anisotropically, in even in solution. In contrast to high-cost vacuum-based dry etching methods, MAC etch enables to fabricate a variety of high aspect ratio nanostructures through wet etching process.