Deep NLD plasma etching of Fused Silica and Borosilicate Glass

Author

Ahamed, Mohammed J. ; Senkal, Doruk ; Trusov, Alexander A. ; Shkel, Andrei M.

Author_Institution

Microsyst. Lab., Univ. of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

3-6 Nov. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In this paper, we report development of deep plasma etching process for Fused Silica (FS) and Borosilicate Glass (BSG) using magnetic Neutral Loop Discharge (NLD) plasma, achieving a depth of 100 μm, a high aspect ratio of 8:1, nearly vertical walls, and etch rate as high as 0.75 μm/min. The plasma conditions, such as gas flow, power, pressure, and masking materials were experimentally analyzed and optimized for improved aspect ratio, selectivity, sidewall angle, etch rate, and etch quality. The design of experiment with etching parameters and variation in masking materials provides a systematic approach to the fabrication of sensors, resonators and microsystems using FS and BSG.

Keywords

borosilicate glasses; design of experiments; discharges (electric); masks; microfabrication; micromechanical resonators; microsensors; photoresists; sputter etching; B₂O₃-SiO₂; SiO₂; aspect ratio; borosilicate glass; deep NLD plasma etching; etch quality; etch rate; fused silica; gas flow; magnetic neutral loop discharge plasma; masking materials; microsystems; plasma power; plasma pressure; resonators; selectivity; sensors; sidewall angle; Etching; Glass; Nickel; Plasmas; Rough surfaces; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

SENSORS, 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

1930-0395

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSENS.2013.6688574

Filename

6688574