Realization of the microchannel with microisland arrays by one-step silicon wet etching process

In this paper, the study on fabricating silicon microchannel with high-density small-scale microisland arrays by one-step anisotropic wet etching process has been presented. Two different kinds of compensating masks were elaborately designed, one is consist of a series traditional T-shape compensating patterns arranged by cross-compensating method; the other is formed by a series of square-slits aligned along the silicon <;100> directions. 200 μm-width 20 μm-depth microchannels containing microisland arrays were realized utilizing those compensating masks. It was found that the microislands owned a “windmill flower” shape under the former compensating mask, the average feature size was down to 4 μm and the minimum center spacing reached 50 μm. Meanwhile, microisland arrays with octagonal structure, whose minimum feature size was down to 6.2 μm, were realized by the latter compensating mask.