Specific Process Knowledge/Etch/DRIE-Pegasus/Pegasus-2/Black silicon on Demand

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Black silicon (BSi or silicon micro/nano-grass) is a frequently encountered phenomenon in highly directional etching of silicon using mainstream plasma etch tools. Because of the almost perfect light absorption, BSi has found a prominent place in photovoltaic applications. The strongly increased surface area has also shown attractive opportunities in chemical and optical devices. In addition, another already established characteristic of BSi is its ability to prevent cell growth and as such creates anti-bacterial, anti-fogging and self-cleaning surfaces. On DRIE-Pegasus 2, the formation and controllabilty of BSi in the CORE sequence is different from how BSi presents itself in the FC-based sequences. By manipulating process parameters and utilizing the self-limiting property of the oxidation step, the CORE process can easily be modified to create either BSi-full or BSi-free surfaces independent of the aspect ratio of the etching features. Therefore this method provides a versatile tool for creating BSi anywhere at anytime or - as we call it - ‘BSi on Demand’.

The CORE recipe for BSi is shown as below