SILICON ANISOTROPIC ETCHING IN ALKALINE-SOLUTIONS II - ON THE INFLUENCE OF ANISOTROPY ON THE SMOOTHNESS OF ETCHED SURFACES

Experiments were carried out with anisotropic etching of Si(100) in al kaline solutions from the point of view of surface quality. The circum stances needed to obtain surfaces of various level of smoothness were established. The problem why etched surface is of mirror-like quality, texturized i.e., covered on the whole with random inequality ( someti me of pyramids shape) as well ones covered with single separated hillo cks is discussed in the term of anisotropy. Some analogies between ran dom texturizing, obtaining the hillocks and etching through a patterne d SiO2 mask were stated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights res erved.