Thick macroporous membranes made of p-type silicon

In the last decade, very thick macro porous silicon (PS) has been enjoying a growing popularity in a wide range of applications. There is also an increasing demand for thick macroporous membranes with through pores. In this work, we studied the optimal etch conditions with respect to stable pore growth and high etch rate for macro PS in p-type silicon. A single-step etching process has been developed to tackle the problem of uniform membrane formation. Very thick (> 500 mu m) through-wafer macroporous membranes on p-type silicon with variable pore sizes and growth rates up to 0.95 mu m/min have been successfully demonstrated. (c) 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.