By IMT Masken und Teilungen AG
In the clock and semiconductor industry, with MEMS and MOEMS, a wide range of etching processes, such as 'Bosch' (DRIE) and 'LIGA', has become firmly established. IMT differentiates fundamentally between two methods in glass processing: Very quick etch rates (>> µm/min) can be achieved with hydrofluoric acid. Alongside the acid concentration, the temperature also plays an important role in this. For production, we use fully automated systems which meet the top safety standards whilst providing high throughput and reproducibility. The etching homogeneity is ±2.5% on a 200 mm wafer. This also applies for the wafer to wafer uniformity within a batch. In the layout of the structure to be etched, we are bound to a 2:1 aspect ratio due to the isotropy of the process. Typical bath tub structure with HF The image shows the characteristic topography of a wet-chemically etched channel. The edges are rounded and the ratio of channel width to channel depth is 2:1.
