Technologies for Realisation of Ultra-thin Chips

Ultra-thin chips (UTC) of silicon are a promising approach to address the immediate demand for the development of high performance flexible electronic systems. However, Si is brittle and rigid in nature, thereby limiting its application in flexible electronics. The mechanical flexibility could be induced to Si, by thinning it down to < 50 µm. This paper presents an overview of post-processing steps adopted for realisation of UTC. In particular, we have focussed on wet-etching and two protective layers, namely ProTEK© B3 and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which could be used as a low-cost method for protecting the front side of the wafer comprising of electronics devices.