Wafer-scale 3D shaping of high aspect ratio structures by multistep plasma etching and corner lithography

The current progress of system miniaturization relies extensively on the development of 3D machining techniques to increase the areal structure density. In this work, a wafer-scale out-of-plane 3D silicon (Si) shaping technology is reported, which combines a multistep plasma etching process with corner lithography. The multistep plasma etching procedure results in high aspect ratio structures with stacked semicircles etched deep into the sidewall and thereby introduces corners with a proper geometry for the subsequent corner lithography. Due to the geometrical contrast between the gaps and sidewall, residues are left only inside the gaps and form an inversion mask inside the semicircles. Using this mask, octahedra and donuts can be etched in a repeated manner into Si over the full wafer area, which demonstrates the potential of this technology for constructing high-density 3D structures with good dimensional control in the bulk of Si wafers. A novel 3-D silicon shaping technology has been developed that combines a multistep etching process with corner lithography. Currently, system miniaturization relies extensively on 3-D machining techniques. A team headed by Shu Ni and Niels R. Tas at the University of Twente, Netherlands developed a versatile fabrication technique for wafer-scale micro- and nano-machining using a combination of multistep etching and corner lithography (layer deposition and subsequent timed etching of the layer, resulting in a well-defined residue in concave corners and layer removal on flat surfaces and convex corners). The multistep etching creates high-aspect-ratio structures with stacked semicircles etched deeply into the sidewall; corners are introduced with proper geometry for the subsequent corner lithography. The authors believe their technique has excellent potential for constructing high-density 3-D structures with good dimensional control in most silicon wafers.