Aspect ratio dependent etching lag reduction in deep silicon etch processes

TLDR: In this paper, a physical model is presented to describe the time division multiplex (TDM) plasma etch processes and thereafter the experimental results on aspect ratio dependent etching (ARDE) lag reduction.

Abstract: Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device fabrication often involves three dimensional structures with high aspect ratios. Moreover, MEMS designs require structures with different dimensions and aspect ratios to coexist on a single microchip. There is a well-documented aspect ratio dependent etching (ARDE) effect in deep silicon etching processes. For features with different dimensions etched simultaneously, the ARDE effect causes bigger features to be etched at faster rates. In practice, ARDE effect has many undesired complications to MEMS device fabrication. This article presents a physical model to describe the time division multiplex (TDM) plasma etch processes and thereafter the experimental results on ARDE lag reduction. The model breaks individual plasma etch cycles in the TDM plasma etch processes into polymer deposition, polymer removal, and spontaneous silicon etching stages. With the insights gained from the model and control over the passivation and etch steps, it has been demonstrated that ...