Surface Characterization of High Purity Metals of Silver and Nickel Electropolished with an Ionic Liquid

摘要

In micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) applications, complex device structures are realized using the well-established fabrication techniques used in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Nickel and Ni based alloys have been found to have good mechanical properties that can be exploited to realize movable structures in MEMS devices, moreover the magnetic properties of Ni has been widely used in magnetic MEMS [1]. Also, silver appears as one of the most promising materials for microchip metallization, as feature sizes shrink below 50 nm [2]. Because silver has the lowest resistivity of all metals at ambient temperature Therefore, Ag will have excellent prospects for next chip generations [3-4]. Electrochemical polishing will be an important technique for smoothing the surface of metals in the next generation of MEMS especially with line structures with nanosized feature. Therefore, the field of electrochemical polishing continues to expand as literature suggests that commercially utilized methods of acid-based electropolishing can be replaced with non-hazardous alternatives based on ionic liquid mediums [5-7].