SHARP SILICON TIPS FOR AFM AND FIELD-EMISSION

This paper discusses the status of the development of dry etching processes for obtaining very sharp high aspect-ratio Si-tips. We have applied RIE with magnetic confinement plasma using oxide/resist masks. Three etching strategies correspond to different chemistries were used: (i)SF6+Ar, (ii)SF6+CCl2F2/Ar and (iii)BCl3/Cl-2/Br-2. The final sharpening of the tip is realized by oxidation followed by wet etching. The curvature radius of these dry etched tips is about 30nm and after sharpening radii tips below 10nm.