Anisotropic wet etching of silicon in KOH solution

Application ID: 139781


KOH(aq), an alkali metal hydroxide solution, is widely used in anisotropic wet etching technology and is one of the most commonly utilized solutions for micromachining silicon wafers. Anisotropic etching refers to a process where the etching rate varies in different directions, primarily due to the differing densities of silicon atoms on various crystal planes. Utilizing the interpolation function method for etching rate from [1], the anisotropic wet etching simulation of silicon in a KOH solution was conducted using the COMSOL deformation geometry feature. Operation Conditions are from [2]: 30% KOH solution concentration at an operating temperature of 70°C.

Reference: [1]Hubbard, Ted J. (1994) MEMS design : the geometry of silicon micromachining. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/TK4C-M144. [2]Wagner, Andrew. (2005) KOH Si Wet Etch Review.

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