> > We make microstructures out of 15 mill single crystal silicon substrates. > Using 110 oriented silicon and masking along the right 111 plane we can etch > vertically or almost completely anisotropically. A recent application required > etching 60 mill silicon substrates. The degree of anisotropy we can achieve > during etching is inconsistent. We can rarely get vertical sidewalls while > etching. I am told that this is because of "swirl" in the silicon substrates. > It is my understanding that swirl is a type of "crooked" growth defect during > LEC crystal growth processing. > > > Can anyone verify that the poor anisotropic etching is due to "swirl"? Is this > a common problem when performing bulk anisotropic etching of silicon substrates > that are > 45 mills thick? Does anyone know where I can get single crystal 110 > silicon substrates (~ 0.060 ") with minimal swirl? Is there another way to get > excellent wet chemistry anisotropic etching without having to worry about swirl? > > Any information I can get would be helpful. > > Thank you, > > Andrew J. Nielson > Graduate Student, Mechanical Engineering > Brigham Young University > Mems Group > email: nielsona@et.byu.edu > http://www.et.byu.edu:80/~nielsona > > >