A novel anti-shock silicon etching apparatus for solving diaphragm release problems

Abstract

This paper presents a novel anti-shock bulk silicon etching apparatus for solving a universal problem which occurs when releasing the diaphragm (e.g. SiNx), that the diaphragm tends to be probably cracked by the impact of heatinginduced bubbles, the swirling of heating-induced etchant, dithering of the hand and imbalanced etchant pressure during the wafer being taken out. Through finite element methods, the causes of the diaphragm cracking are analysed. The impact of heating-induced bubbles could be the main factor which results in the failure stress of the SiNx diaphragm and the rupture of it. In order to reduce the four potential effects on the cracking of the released diaphragm, an anti-shock bulk silicon etching apparatus is proposed for using during the last etching process of the diaphragm release. That is, the silicon wafer is first put into the regular constant temperature etching apparatus or ultrasonic plus, and when the residual bulk silicon to be etched reaches near the interface of the silicon and SiNx diaphragm, within a distance of 50-80 µm (the exact value is determined by the thickness, surface area and intensity of the released diaphragm), the wafer is taken out carefully and put into the said anti-shock silicon etching apparatus. The wafer's position is at the geometrical centre, also the centre of gravity of the etching vessel. An etchant outlet is built at the bottom. The wafer is etched continuously, and at the same time the etchant flows out of the vessel. Optionally, two symmetrically placed low-power heating resistors are put in the anti-shock silicon etching apparatus to quicken the etching process. The heating resistors' power should be low enough to avoid the swirling of the heating-induced etchant and the impact of the heating-induced bubbles on the released diaphragm. According to the experimental results, the released SiNx diaphragm thus treated is unbroken, which proves the practicality of the said anti-shock bulk silicon etching apparatus.