DEVELOPMENT OF THREE DIMENSIONAL SILICON MICRO- AND NANO-MACHINING

Abstract

A novel process for fabricating true, three-dimensional (3D) silicon and porous silicon components at micro- and nano-scale dimensions is developed. Using this process, structures which can be two- and three-dimensional, free-standing, arbitrary-shaped, or curved, and with features at multiple heights, and combined at micro- and nano-scale dimensions are fabricated in a single etch step out of bulk silicon. This process is based on high-energy ion irradiation, such as 100 keV to 2 MeV protons and helium ions, of p-type silicon wafers. Fundamental aspects of this silicon machining work are also studied for this thesis. In addition, applications of this machining process in different fields such as micro/nanofluidics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), photonics, nano-scale depth machining, nanostencil mask fabrication and patterned silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabrication are explored in this thesis. Further development of this machining technique may lead to fabrication of highly compact custom-shaped 3D systems-on-a-chip to develop future micro- and nano-technologies.