Sacrificial etching of Al_xGa_1-xAs for III–V MEMS surface micromachining

Abstract

A study of Al_xGa_1-xAs as a sacrificial film for surface micromachining is presented. Al_xGa_1-xAs etch rate and selectivity are measured over a range of aluminum mole fractions and HF etchant concentrations during the release of structural features up to 500 μm in width. The etch process is found to be diffusion limited, with an inverse power law relationship between etch depth and etch rate. Excellent selectivity greater than 10⁵ is achieved between sacrificial AlAs and structural GaAs, even for long etches up to 250 μm in length. Compared with previous studies of Al_xGa_1-xAs etching for epitaxial liftoff processing, measured etch rates for surface micromachining are approximately an order of magnitude lower, primarily due to the longer effective etch lengths required. However, unlike epitaxial liftoff, Al_xGa_1-xAs surface micromachining is compatible with higher HF concentrations which can provide comparable overall etch rates, with important implications for AlGaAs MEMS fabrication.