Fabrication of pyramidal cavity structure with micron-sized tip using anisotropic KOH etching of silicon (100)

Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) are systems of micron-sized structures and typically integrated with microelectronic components. Bulk micromachining using wet anisotropic etching is able to etch silicon substrates to a desired three-dimensional (3D) structure, depending on the silicon crystallographic orientation. To date, MEMS components i.e. thermal, pressure, mechanical, bio/chemical sensors have been fabricated with wet anisotropic etching of silicon. This paper presents the fabrication of a 3D pyramidal cavity structure with micron-sized tip of silicon (100) using anisotropic KOH etching of w/w 45 % at 80 oC temperature. Volume percent of 10 % IPA as a less polar diluent is added to the KOH etching solution in saturating the solution and controlling the etching selectivity and rate. Smooth etched silicon surface of hillock free is able to be achieved with IPA addition to the KOH etching solution. A characteristic V-shaped cavity with side angle of 54.8 degrees has successfully been formed and is almost identical to the theoretical structure model. Comparison of two different silicon nitride window masks on the micron-size tip formation is also investigated. Under etch, over etch and etching selectivity, as common problems effecting the micron-tip size variation, are also addressed in this work. In conclusion, anisotropic KOH etching as a simple, fast and inexpensive bulk micromachining technique, in fabricating 3D MEMS structure using silicon (100), is validated in this work