A Numerical Model for Etching through a Circular hole

Abstract

A numerical model based on the total concentration of etchant is proposed to model the wet chemical etching through a circular hole. The reaction at the etchant-substrate interface is assumed to be infinitely fast i.e. etching is controlled by the diffusion of etchant to the interface. The proposed model is based on a fixed-grid approach analogous to the enthalpy method. The total concentration of etchant is the sum of the unreacted etchant concentration and the reacted etchant concentration. The reacted concentration of etchant is a measure of the etchfront position during etching. The governing mass diffusion equation based on the total concentration of etchant includes the interface condition. The etchfront position is found implicitly using the proposed approach. The computational domain is fixed, which includes the whole etchant and substrate domain including the mask region. For demonstration purposes, the finite volume method is used to solve the governing mass diffusion equation with prescribed initial and boundary conditions. The effect of mask thickness and initial etchant concentration on the shape evolution of etchfront is studied