Anisotropic etching of silicon in alkaline solutions : Microscopic activation energy calculations for silicon atoms and its simulation applications

The microscopic activation energies for different surface silicon atoms under different etching conditions are calculated out for the first time based on a series of equations relating the macroscopic etch rates of different silicon crystal planes and the microscopic etch rates of surface silicon atoms with different atom configurations. The microscopic etch rates for surface atoms under different etching conditions are obtained. The obtained microscopic activation energies for silicon atoms and the calculation method have been extended to a silicon anisotropic etching simulation system. A series of simulations have been performed using the simulation system and the simulation results demonstrate to be in good agreement with the experimental results.