Knowledge of the magnitude and characteristic length scales of chip-scale process variations due to varying substrate pattern density is essential if compensation measures, such as incorporation of dummy structures, are to be taken during mask layout. Effects of variations in local pattern density on a deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) process have been investigated, and a decrease of the etch rate...

A combination of template-assisted metal catalytic etching and self-limiting oxidation has been successfully implemented to yield core-shell silicon nanowire arrays with inner diameter down to sub-10 nm. The diameter of the polystyrene spheres after reactive ion etching and the thickness of the deposited Ag film are both crucial for the removal of the polystyrene spheres. The mean diameter of t...

Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of borosilicate glass and profile control of an etched groove are reported. DRIE was carried out using an anodically bonded silicon wafer as an etching mask. We controlled the groove profile, namely improving its sidewall angle, by removing excessively thick polymer film produced by carbonfluoride etching gases during DRIE. Two fabrication processes were experim...

This paper presents a fabrication process that integrates polysilicon surface micromachining and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) bulk silicon micromachining. The process takes advantage of the design flexibility of polysilicon surface micromachining and the deep silicon structures possible with DRIE. As a demonstration, a torsional actuator driven by a combdrive moving in the out-of-plane dire...

Real-time, in-situ control of reactive ion etching is shown to reduce loading disturbance in an Applied 8300 reactive ion etch system. The etch process vehicle is CF4 etching of polysilicon. A real-time, multivariable feedback control strategy where key plasma parameters are fed back has been developed. This strategy is experimentally compared with standard industry practice and is shown to red...

A processing technology is presented to produce high-aspect ratio submicrometer silicon needles suited for intracellular interfacing with living cells. Pillars are created using deep reactive ion etching, and the sharpening of the pillars is achieved by reactive ion etching. A simple polyimide-based micro-fabrication approach was developed to integrate the silicon needles with a larger silicon ...