At 02:04 PM 6/14/96 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>>
>> Dear Mems experts
>>
>> I have two visiting students from Germany who are
>> making ultrathin SiN force microscope cantilevers,
>> of order 350-800 Angstroms thick and up to 200
>> microns long.
>>
>> The last stage of the process is an anisotropic
>> etch in KOH to free the cantilevers from the
>> underlying silicon, followed by critical point
>> drying in C02.
How can the KOH be anisotropic?
>> During the etch, the Si bubbles like crazy,
>> to the extend that we are surprised that the
>> cantilevers even survive!
If this is a batch proces where you need to do many devices? You could etch the
cantilevers with a focused ion beam, without chemicals.
>> Survive they do, however we would like
>> to suppress the bubbling if possible.  Can
>> anyone offer any suggestions?  We apologize
>> if this is a well-know problem with a well
>> known solution.... it is only well known
>> to those who know it well (which is not us!)
>>
>> Best wishes from a fan of MEMS ... John Sidles
Regards,
Bob McGeary