Microstructuring of Si(100) by light induced dry etching in the VUV

Synchrotron-radiation-stimulated etching of polydimethylsiloxane using XeF2as a reaction gas

“…Although we do not discuss the etching mechanisms in this work, the high spatial resolution, anisotropic and high-speed etching at room temperature indicates that the etching is induced by the electronic excitation of PDMS (Urisu & Kyuragi, 1987;Streller et al, 1998;Akazawa et al, 1991). The extremely high etching rate, 40-50 mm (10 min)…”

“…The synchrotron radiation (SR) stimulated etching process (Urisu & Kyuragi, 1987;Streller et al, 1998;Akazawa et al, 1991;Wen & Chou, 2000;Nonogaki et al, 2000;Wang et al, 2006) has many unique features, such as selective cleaving of chemical bonds by exciting certain dissociative energy levels, low damage to substrates in comparison with the plasma process, high material selectivity, anisotropic etching, lowering of the process temperature, and high spatial resolution and aspect ratio because of the short wavelengths. Although a large number of studies have been reported on SR etching on solid materials, there are no studies reporting the SR process on elastic materials to our knowledge.…”

“…In the study of SR etching of SiO 2 substrates using XeF 2 , Streller et al (1998) reported that surface excitation is dominant and that area-selectivity, anisotropy, high quantum efficiency and high spatial resolution can be achieved. Although SR etching of PDMS using XeF 2 has not yet been reported, it is strongly expected that similar high-speed, high-spatialresolution and high-aspect-ratio etching can be realised by this technique, since PDMS is a silicon-based polymer.…”

Reactions of halogens with surfaces stimulated by VUV light

“…In addition they have strong electronic transitions in the spectral range from 150 to 50 nm and it is expected that the reactivity can be enhanced further by stimulating these excited states with light. The reactions are induced on Cu plates [11][12][13][14][15] and films [16] and on single-crystalline Si(100) [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and GaAs(100) [24][25][26][27] surfaces in order to cover relevant metallic and semiconductor systems. Due to the high reactivity of halogens it is necessary in a first step to separate the reaction of ground state atoms, which is independent from irradiation and therefore called dark reaction, from the light induced reactions.…”