FREE STANDING SUBMICROMETRIC SILICON WIRES FABRICATED BY MEANS OF MICROMACHINING

摘要

A two masks process to fabricate suspended silicon wires with dimensions in the submicrometric range is proposed. The silicon wires have a trapezoidal cross section and two pads for the electrical characterization. The starting material was a SOI wafer <100> oriented; the structures have been obtained by means of standard photolithography, silicon anisotropic etching and thermal oxidation. The silicon etching was performed in a 35 % KOH solution at 47°C while the structure dimensions were further reduced by means of steam oxidation at 1050°C. Silicon wires with a minimum dimension of 52 nm were obtained.