By Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication
Chemical etching is a subtractive process where controlled chemical reactions are used to selectively remove material from a substrate to create intricate patterns, designs, or features. It involves immersing the material in an etchant solution or applying the solution directly to the surface through a variety of methods such as spraying or masking. The automated wetbench suite is comprised of three custom made instruments - a manual wet processing deck, a semi-automated chemical cleaning station and an alcohol vapour dryer. The manual wet processing deck is equipped with five chemical baths for small batch processing of substrates up to six inches in diameter. The tool is configured specifically for silicon wet etching and targeted metal removal. The semi-automated chemical cleaning station is enclosed, exhausted and tailored to applications where process control, repeatability, throughput and safety are required. This tool will perform hazardous substrate cleaning tasks using a rotary robot to access wet chemical processing baths for silicon dioxide etching, removing contaminants and controlled rinsing. An accessory to this, the ultrasonic acetone de-scum station, will also be available for the bulk removal of photoresists and high performance photolithography lift-off for submicron lithographic features. The vapour dryer creates an alcohol vapour above the substrate surface, creating the differential surface tension for drying without any need for heaters or rotation. The system is well-suited to drying applications using planar substrates. Porous silicon (PS) has gained wide-spread attention over the last decade for its interesting material properties, including nanometer features and extremely high specific surface area. Applications are, amongst others, humidity sensors, particle filters, optical elements and biochemical matrices. Microporous silicon is fabricated by etching silicon in HF-based solutions under applied voltage. - Chemical (Wet) Etching Automated Wetbench Suite Amerimade Comprised of three custom made instruments – a manual wet processing deck, a semi-automated chemical cleaning station and an IPA aerosol vapour dryer. - Chemical (Wet) Etching Porous Silicon System AMMT Microporous silicon and silicon nanoparticles are fabricated by etching silicon in HF-based solutions under applied voltage. - Chemical (Wet) Etching Small Etching Cell HF Fumehoods Porous silicon etching in small batches.
