Novel patterning method for the electrochemical production of etched silicon

Silicon plays a major role in both the microelectronics industry and in the more recently emerging fields of microsystems technology and micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS). Porous silicon is used increasingly in MEMS due to many of its properties of high specific area and luminescence. Patterned geometrical arrangements of porous silicon generated by electrochemical etching in hydrofluoric acid solutions usually requires silicon nitride or silicon carbide, as an etch mask. An alternative methodology is reported here. which using photopatterned films of a negative, imaging-type, chemically-amplified-resist (SU8) to produce patterned geometrical areas of nanoporous and macroporous silicon. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.