Fabrication of Silicon Nanowires by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Combined with Micro-Vibration

Weiye Huang; Junyi Wu; Wenxin Li; Guojin Chen; Changyong Chu; Chao Li; Yucheng Zhu; Hui Yang; Yan Chao

doi:10.3390/ma16155483

Fabrication of Silicon Nanowires by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Combined with Micro-Vibration

Materials (Basel). 2023 Aug 5;16(15):5483. doi: 10.3390/ma16155483.

Authors

Weiye Huang¹, Junyi Wu², Wenxin Li¹, Guojin Chen¹, Changyong Chu¹, Chao Li¹, Yucheng Zhu¹, Hui Yang¹, Yan Chao¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
² Sanmen Sanyou Technology Inc., Taizhou 472000, China.

Abstract

In this work, we design a micro-vibration platform, which combined with the traditional metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE) to etch silicon nanowires (SiNWs). The etching mechanism of SiNWs, including in the mass-transport (MT) and charge-transport (CT) processes, was explored through the characterization of SiNW's length as a function of MaCE combined with micro-vibration conditions, such as vibration amplitude and frequency. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) experimental results indicated that the etching rate would be continuously improved with an increase in amplitude and reached its maximum at 4 μm. Further increasing amplitude reduced the etching rate and affected the morphology of the SiNWs. Adjusting the vibration frequency would result in a maximum etching rate at a frequency of 20 Hz, and increasing the frequency will not help to improve the etching effects.

Keywords: MaCE; amplitude; etching rate; frequency; micro-vibration platform.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Zhejiang Science and Technology Plan Project (No. 2022C01199), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial University of Zhejiang (GK219909299001-021).