Etching
Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE)
Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE)
Introduction
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) is an ion-assisted reactive etching method combining both chemical and physical etching, which allows isotropic and anisotropic (uni-directional) material removal. The etching process is carried out in a chemically reactive plasma containing positively and negatively charged ions generated from the gas that is pumped into the reaction chamber. A mask on top of the substrate is used to protect certain areas from etching, exposing only the areas to be etched. It offers excellent process control (homogeneity, etch-rate, etch-profile, selectivity), which is critical for high-fidelity pattern-transfer in micro- and nano-system technologies.
Applications
Reactive ion etching is extensively used in the field of displays & lighting (LEDs), semiconductor & electronics, MEMS, communication technology, microfluidics, optoelectronics and photovoltaics.
Projects
Combinatorial development of nanostructured metal oxide thin films for chemical sensing
Rapid point of care sensor for infectious disease discrimination
Controlled plasmonic 3D nano-architechtures
Nanoplasmonic optical circuits – building blocks for optical metamaterials
Vertical arrays of gold nanorods on patterned substrates
Equipment
MCN houses two RIE systems. One is dedicated for deep silicon etching called DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) Bosch process. The system uses alternating etch (SF6) and passivation (C4F8) cycles to achieve high aspect ratio structures (~1:100). The other system is used as a general etch, wherein other materials including SiO2, Si3N4, Ge, Al, Al2O3, Au are etched.
Documentation
For more information on hot embossing, please refer to the link provided below:
Contacts
For more details about hot embossing at MCN or enquiries about access please contact:
Sasikaran Kandasamy – sasikaran.kandasamy@monash.edu
