RESUMEN
Micro/nanoscale structure fabrication is an important process for designing miniaturized devices. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits using SiO2 via-holes interlayer filling by copper have attracted attention to extend the lifetime of Moore's law. However, the fabrication of vertical and smooth-sidewall via-hole structures on SiO2 has not been achieved using the conventional dry etching method due to the limitation of the selective etching ratio of SiO2 and hard mask materials. In this study, we developed a unique method for the deep anisotropic dry etching of SiO2 using atmospheric gas-phase HF and a patterned photoresist. The hydroxyl groups in the photoresist catalyzed the HF gas-phase dry etching of SiO2 at high-temperature conditions. Therefore, fabrication of vertical with smooth-sidewall deep microstructures was demonstrated in the photoresist-covered area on SiO2 at a processing rate of 1.3 µm/min, which is 2-3 times faster than the conventional dry etching method. Additionally, the chemical reaction pathway in the photoresist-covered area on SiO2 with HF gas was revealed via density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This simple and high-speed microfabrication process will expand the commercial application scope of next-generation microfabricated SiO2-based devices.
RESUMEN
A medical ultrasound diagnostic system and an ultrasonic microscope are generally used in the frequency range of 1-20 MHz and 100 MHz-2 GHz, respectively. Ultrasonic transducers in the frequency range of 20-100 MHz are, therefore, not well developed because of less application into ultrasonic imaging or suitable piezoelectric materials with this frequency range. Polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) is usually used for ultrasonic transducers in the 10-50-MHz ranges. However, their electromechanical coupling coefficient of 4% is not enough for the practical uses. In order to excite the ultrasonic wave in the 20-100 MHz range, a 125-25- -thick piezoelectric film is required when the longitudinal velocity of the material is assumed to be 5000 m/s. However, it is difficult to grow such a thick piezoelectric film without a crack being caused by the internal stress during the dry deposition technique. We achieved a stress-free film growth by employing the unique hot target sputtering technique without heating the substrate. High-efficient 81- ( .5%) and 43-MHz ( %) ultrasonic generation by using the 43- and 90- extremely thick ScAlN (Sc: 39%) films were demonstrated, respectively. We discussed the advantage of ScAlN thick-film transducers by comparing them with the conventional PVDF transducer for the water medium.