A new thinning and trimming approach has been explored to produce silicon nanowires (SiNWs) from silicon microwires. One-dimensional nanostructures have attracted great attention recently because of their potential applications as excellent components in micro/nanodevices. SiNWs in particular have received much attention since silicon is the most widely used material in integrated-circuit and microfabrication processes and has unique mechanical and electrical properties. However, due to the shortcomings of the existing fabrication approaches, new methods are needed to produce SiNWs that can not only be massively fabricated but also batch integrated to functional devices. The developed thinning and trimming approach is believed to be such a method, and would permit precise control of the structure, size and positions of SiNWs. Furthermore, this method may be used to break through the limitation of lithography in the sense that silicon features fabricated by any lithographic methods can be further miniaturized using this approach. Our progress on developing this new thinning and trimming approach is detailed in this paper.
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