Thermally assisted ion beam etching of polytetrafluoroethylene, a new technique for high aspect ratio etching of MEMS

Berenschot, Erwin and Jansen, Henri and Burger, Gert-Jan and Gardeniers, Han and Elwenspoek, Miko (1996) Thermally assisted ion beam etching of polytetrafluoroethylene, a new technique for high aspect ratio etching of MEMS. In: Ninth Annual International Workshop on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, MEMS, February 11-15, 1996, San Diego, California, USA.

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Abstract:	In micromechanics, the etching of high aspect ratio structures in polymers is a prime technology. Normally, oxygen-based reactive ion etching or the LIGA technique are used to achieve this goal. This paper reintroduces a different idea to create deep trenches at high etch speed: the ion beam etching of Teflon. Because of its extraordinary properties the etch selectivity with respect to most other materials is over 1000. A model is proposed to explain the high etch rate and selectivity. Generally, the etching ions are highly energetic and material from different sources is sputtered on top of the sample. The high selectivity, high anisotropy, and sputtering of material are thought to be responsible for the forming of micrograss during etching a sample. Ways are given to decrease or increase this grass. The high potential of this technique will be discussed and applications will be shown. Especially, the use of etched Teflon for direct moulding is believed to become the main use of this technique
Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item
Copyright:	© 1996 IEEE
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Transducers Science and Technology (TST) Mesoscale Chemical Systems (MCS)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/25571
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MEMSYS.1996.493994
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