A MEMS Clearinghouse® and information portal
for the MEMS and Nanotechnology community
RegisterSign-In
MEMSnet Home About Us What is MEMS? Beginner's Guide Discussion Groups Advertise Here
News
MEMSnet Home: MEMS-Talk: Re: How to etch Cr-Au-Cr
Re: How to etch Cr-Au-Cr
2001-12-30
[email protected]
Re: How to etch Cr-Au-Cr
[email protected]
2001-12-30
Greetings,

The top layer of Cr is no problem it will be etched away with the gold layer.
 A very common gold etch is the Iodine etch made from 400 gm of KI plus 100
gm of Iodine add the ingredients in the order listed to say 300 ml of DI
water dissolve the KI completely before adding Iodine crystals then dilute to
400 ml for the final solution.  This solution etch gold to fast for the thin
gold you are using so dilute a portion 4:1 with DI water to make an etchant
of 500 to 1000 A/min.  The etching process is done by dipping in the solution
for a few seconds then quickly rinsing in running DI. Inspect and then
re-etch again. Repeat this process a few times to find the end point as it is
impossible to see this end point in the dark Iodine sol.

As for the bottom Cr layer can be etched with the following Cr etch. 9 parts
saturated solution of Cerric Sulfate and one part of Nitric acid (70%). All
parts are by volume.

Caution: neither of these etchants can be poured down the drain and must be
disposed of in a safe to the environment manner. This could be a big problem.

My personal favorite method is to Sputter Etch the multi metal sandwich. The
etched pattern will exactly match the resist pattern and no waste disposal
problems to deal with.  The process requires a suit sputtering system,
however.

Regards,

Campman

reply
Events
Glossary
Materials
Links
MEMS-talk
Terms of Use | Contact Us | Search
MEMS Exchange
MEMS Industry Group
Coventor
Harrick Plasma
Tanner EDA
Tanner EDA by Mentor Graphics
Nano-Master, Inc.
MEMS Technology Review
The Branford Group