FABRICATION OF DIAMOND MEMBRANES FOR MEMS USING REACTIVE ION ETCHING OF SILICON

Polycrystalline diamond thin film has been grown on a silicon substrat e using high pressure microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposit ion from a gas mixture of methane and hydrogen at a substrate temperat ure of 950 degrees C. A simple process flow has been developed to fabr icate optically transparent polycrystalline synthetic diamond membrane s/windows employing reactive ion etching (RIE) of a single crystal sil icon substrate using an electron beam evaporated aluminum thin film ma sk pattern formed by photolithography. Scanning electron microscopy ha s been used to study the morphology of as-grown diamond thin films. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.