QUARTZ MICROMACHINING BY LITHOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF ION TRACK ETCHING

A micromachining process, using ion track etching in combination with lithographic patterning, is presented. The technique employs a substra te pre-irradiated with swift heavy ions and uses a conventional Lithog raphic technique to control the access of a track-selective etching me dium to the ion tracks. Experimental results show the possibility of g enerating high aspect ratio structures in virtually any direction in s ingle crystalline quartz, which otherwise exhibits a strong ''natural' ' anisotropy to conventional wet etching. In this way complex, three-d imensional quartz structures of 80 mu m height with vertical or pre-de fined inclination angles of the walls were produced. The process can b e applied to other, even highly radiation resistant, dielectric materi als such as mica and organic polymers. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.