A Full-dry Processing Technique from Sacrificial Layer Etching to Water-repellent Coating

Abstract

A new full-dry processing method has been developed that includes a new sacrificial layer dry etching technique, which enables the microscopic structures used for microsensors to be released from silicon substrates with high repeatability, and a new water-repellent dry coating technique, which prevents the released structures from sticking to substrates during operation. The usefulness of this full-dry processing method from etching to coating, with respect to the length of releasable cantilevers, was evaluated by comparison with the conventional wet method. It was confirmed that the full-dry processing method permits sustainable cantilevers to be about three times longer than those released using the conventional wet method.