Fabrication of the hexagonal Si nanorod arrays using the template of polystyrene nanospheres in monolayer dispersion

摘要

Silicon etching is an essential fabrication step in micro-anoelectromechanical systems. In this article, the inductive coupled plasma etching technology using monolayer polystyrene nanospheres as the template provides a feasible top-down dry etching method in silicon substrates. The size of the polystyrene nanosphere templates coated on the silicon substrate was adjusted using O_2 plasma etching, and the subsequent inductive coupled plasma etching process was applied to produce the silicon nanorods by alternatively employing etching gas SF_6 and protective gas C_4F_8. The O_2 plasma etching time on the template and the SF_6/C_4F_8 flow rate for etching Si substrate were optimized in order to obtain the silicon nanorod structures in the hexagonal morphologies with good verticality, uniformity, and periodicity.