A novel 2D silicon nano-mold fabrication technique for linear nanochannels over a 4 inch diameter substrate

Abstract

A novel low-cost 2D silicon nano-mold fabrication technique was developed based on Cu inclined-deposition and Ar+ (argon ion) etching. With this technique, sub-100 nm 2D (two dimensional) nano-channels can be etched economically over the whole area of a 4 inch n-type <100> silicon wafer. The fabricating process consists of only 4 steps, UV (Ultraviolet) lithography, inclined Cu deposition, Ar+ sputter etching, and photoresist & Cu removing. During this nano-mold fabrication process, we investigated the influence of the deposition angle on the width of the nano-channels and the effect of Ar+ etching time on their depth. Post-etching measurements showed the accuracy of the nanochannels over the whole area: the variation in width is 10%, in depth it is 11%. However, post-etching measurements also showed the accuracy of the nanochannels between chips: the variation in width is 2%, in depth it is 5%. With this newly developed technology, low-cost and large scale 2D nano-molds can be fabricated, which allows commercial manufacturing of nano-components over large areas.

Electrokinetic transport phenomena in nanofluidics and their applications

“…With polymer films as the substrates, the vertically and horizontally aligned nanochannels have been generated successfully. As shown in Figure 2, the track-etching techniques, involving the steps of irradiation of high-energy heavy ions, UV sensitization, and chemical etching, are widely employed in fabricating the 1D nanochannels vertically oriented to the polymer thin films [6,7]. By irradiating heavy metal ions across the polymer films, incident ions deposit energy uniformly along their trajectories and generate individual tracks.…”

“…The length and width of the nanochannel are determined by the photomask, whereas the depth of the channel can be controlled precisely by the etching rate. Yin et al [6] fabricated 2D nanochannel on a silicon wafer by following the fabricating processes of UV lithography, Cu deposition, sputter etching, and photoresist removing. The 2D nanochannels fabricated from this technique showed high accuracy with the variations of width in 2% and depth in 5%.…”

“…Yin et al. [6] fabricated 2D nanochannel on a silicon wafer by following the fabricating processes of UV lithography, Cu deposition, sputter etching, and photoresist removing. The 2D nanochannels fabricated from this technique showed high accuracy with the variations of width in 2% and depth in 5%.…”

A low-cost and high-efficiency method for four-inch silicon nano-mold by proximity UV exposure

“…Although interference exposure does not require masks, it also relies on expensive exposure equipment. (3) Special processing method: a variety of MEMS fabrication methods are used to realize the manufacturing of nano-molds through process design, such as side wall machining method [18,19], directional deposition method [20] and transverse corrosion method [21]. These methods do not rely on expensive equipment, but the process is complicated, and production period is long.…”

Mask-free construction of three-dimensional silicon structures by dry etching assisted gray-scale femtosecond laser direct writing

“…Therefore, various 3D fabrication methods have been developed to fabricate the arbitrary gradient height structures or 3D structures on various materials. [6][7][8][9][10][11] Among these fabrication strategies, due to its compatibility with the integrated circuit (IC) process and the controllable profiles that can be obtained with a proper mask, gray-scale photolithography has been demonstrated as an effective method for constructing the gradient height silicon structures via one step photolithography followed by dry etching. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Microfluidic structures, 18 refractive microlenses 14 and micro-compressors 13 which have been realized by gray-scale photolithography technology, are widely used in lab on a chip systems, micro-optics, and MEMS, respectively.…”