A new fabrication technique for silicon nanowires

Abstract

A new method is proposed for fabricating silicon nanowires (SiNWs) on silicon substrates instead of on SOI wafers, providing a cheaper process; it also enables their electrical properties to be measured easily. Using scanning probe lithography, mask patterns for SiNWs were defined on a (110)-oriented bare silicon wafer. Subsequently silicon nitride spacers were produced and utilized to protect SiNWs during a dry-oxidation process, which was applied to isolate the SiNWs from the substrate. The field induced oxide mask patterns generated with a scanning probe microscope were around 50-60 mn in width, and SiNWs with 34 nm in width and 160 nm in height resulted after wet potassium hydroxide (KOH) orientation-dependent etching at 40degrees for 400 s. SiNWs with line width around 34 mn on the bare silicon wafer were achieved with the scanning probe lithography process and conventional IC processing. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.