Cryogenic etching of silicon: An alternative method for fabrication of vertical microcantilever master molds

Kweku A. Addae-Mensah; Scott Retterer; Susan R. Opalenik; Darrell Thomas; Nickolay V. Lavrik; John P. Wikswo

doi:10.1109/JMEMS.2009.2037440

Cryogenic etching of silicon: An alternative method for fabrication of vertical microcantilever master molds

Kweku A. Addae-Mensah, Scott Retterer, Susan R. Opalenik, Darrell Thomas, Nickolay V. Lavrik, John P. Wikswo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines the use of deep reactive ion etching of silicon with fluorine high-density plasmas at cryogenic temperatures to produce silicon master molds for vertical microcantilever arrays used for controlling substrate stiffness for culturing living cells. The resultant profiles achieved depend on the rate of deposition and etching of an SiO}_xF_y polymer, which serves as a passivation layer on the sidewalls of the etched structures in relation to areas that have not been passivated with the polymer. We look at how optimal tuning of two parameters, the O₂ flow rate and the capacitively coupled plasma power, determine the etch profile. All other pertinent parameters are kept constant. We examine the etch profiles produced using electron-beam resist as the main etch mask, with holes having diameters of 750 nm, 1 μm, and 2μm.

Original language	English
Article number	5357388
Pages (from-to)	64-74
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
Volume	19
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/JMEMS.2009.2037440
State	Published - Feb 2010

Funding

The authors would like to thank Dr. D. Sawyer for providing assistance, and the University of Michigan’s Lurie Nanofabri-cation Facility. A portion of this research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. Manuscript received December 22, 2008; revised August 24, 2009. First published December 22, 2009; current version published February 3, 2010. This work was supported in part by the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosys-tems Research and Education (VIIBRE), in part by the Whitaker Foundation, and in part by the National Institutes of Health (R01 HLO68144). Subject Editor D.-I. Cho.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
Scientific User Facilities Division
Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosys-tems Research and Education
National Institutes of Health	R01 HLO68144
U.S. Department of Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Whitaker Foundation

Keywords

Biological microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS)
Cryogenic DRIE
Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
Vertical microcantilever arrays

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10.1109/JMEMS.2009.2037440

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title = "Cryogenic etching of silicon: An alternative method for fabrication of vertical microcantilever master molds",

abstract = "This paper examines the use of deep reactive ion etching of silicon with fluorine high-density plasmas at cryogenic temperatures to produce silicon master molds for vertical microcantilever arrays used for controlling substrate stiffness for culturing living cells. The resultant profiles achieved depend on the rate of deposition and etching of an SiO}xFy polymer, which serves as a passivation layer on the sidewalls of the etched structures in relation to areas that have not been passivated with the polymer. We look at how optimal tuning of two parameters, the O2 flow rate and the capacitively coupled plasma power, determine the etch profile. All other pertinent parameters are kept constant. We examine the etch profiles produced using electron-beam resist as the main etch mask, with holes having diameters of 750 nm, 1 μm, and 2μm.",

keywords = "Biological microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS), Cryogenic DRIE, Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Vertical microcantilever arrays",

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AU - Thomas, Darrell

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AU - Wikswo, John P.

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Cryogenic etching of silicon: An alternative method for fabrication of vertical microcantilever master molds

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