Fabrication of thick Si resonators with a frontside-release etch-diffusion process

A frontside-release etch-diffusion process has been developed to create released single-crystalline Si microstructures without the need for wafer bonding. This frontside-release process is simple and requires only a single mask. A deep dry etch in an electron cyclotron resonance source is used to define the structures, followed by a short boron diffusion to convert them to p⁺⁺ Si. A short etch in ethylenediamine pyrocatechol (EDP) is then used to undercut and release the structures from the frontside of the Si wafer. The structures are isolated from the substrate using a reverse-biased p⁺⁺/n junction. Since the structures have a high aspect ratio, beams longer than 1 mm can be released without sticking to the substrate, and thick resonators are flat with no bending due to stresses. Resonant microstructures with thicknesses ranging from 10 to 55 μm thick have been fabricated using this process and their resonant frequency has been measured. For typical clamped-clamped beam resonators that were 24 μm thick, 5 μm wide, and 400 μm long, with 2-μm comb gaps, a resonant frequency of 90.6 kHz and a quality factor of 362 were measured in air.