Silicon micro parts

Our experience in the structuring of silicon enables us to implement complex silicon components.

The basic structuring methods are wet chemical etching or plasma dry etching. With these grooves or ridges can be produced, with a vertical, sloping or concave side wall profile. By combination of different processes from one or both sides of the silicon substrate, we can achieve very complex geometries. Even patterning completely through the substrate is possible. By the use of SOI substrates very small thickness tolerances of about 300 nm can be achieved.

By dry-chemical etching designs can be arranged almost freely. By wet chemical etching structures which are orthogonal to each other can be implemented very well.

silicon patterns fabricated by deep reactive ion etching
silicon patterns fabricated by
deep reactive ion etching
no design limitation in 2D

Variations of patterning methods in silicon

Deep reactive ion etching in silicon
Deep reactive ion etching in silicon
Isotropic etching in silicon
Isotropic etching in silicon
Anisotropic wet etching in silicon
Anisotropic wet etching in silicon

By combination with other manufacturing processes, such as the production of membranes, the doping of silicon or metalization, to name a few, we can integrate multiple functions. Mechanical deformations can be transduced into electrical signals, heated areas can be integrated or electrodes can be added.

Specific properties of single crystalline silicon are its resistance to most chemical substances, no distortion under thermal stress and a wide range of thermal application. Due to its high chemical stability silicon is also very well suitable for biological applications.

Application:

Multi-level silicon components can be used for example in electron optics, where they build very accurate electrode structures in combination with electroplated metals (e.g. gold).

Also optical components can be fabricated from silicon. Precise iris patterned silicon offers the advantage that no interface reflections occur on transmitting areas compared to patterned metalization on glass. Also no absorbing material exists in deep UV applications.

For biological and medical applications, silicon is well suitable due to its chemical stability.

Hot stamping molds or master therefore can also be made easily with this method.

self-supporting silicon grid
self-supporting silicon grid
Silicon fiber optic guide
Silicon fiber optic guide
Silicon component for precise holding of glass segments
Silicon component for precise holding of glass segments

Specifications:

The final specifications depend on design parameters such as component height, structure size and number of levels. Therefore, only approximate values can be given here.

  • Aspect ratio for vertical structures: Up to 15
  • Sidewall angle for vertical structures: 90 + - 1°
  • Sidewall angle for sloping structures: typically 54.7°
  • Pattern fidelity at structure depths of about 0-50 µm: <1µm
  • Pattern fidelity at structure depths of 100-1000µm: ca. 2-10µm
  • Feature sizes: from 500 nm
  • Position tolerance within a level: <1µm
  • Position tolerance from level to level: <2µm
  • Flatness: <0,3 µm / mm
  • Component thicknesses: ~1µm – 1 mm
  • Temperature range: up to 1000°C