Femtosecond-pulsed laser micromachining of a 4H–SiC wafer for MEMS pressure sensor diaphragms and via holes

Abstract

The challenging issues in conventional microfabrication of SiC pressure sensor diaphragms from bulk wafers are low etch rates, thicker (>40 µm) diaphragms, low spatial resolutions, rough surfaces and substantial contamination. In via hole drilling of SiC, the critical concern is the low drilling speed (nm per minute). In this work, femtosecond (fs)-pulsed laser ablation was conducted to overcome some of these deficiencies. Circular diaphragms (0.5 to 1 mm) by trepanning mode and via holes (30–50 µm) by percussion drilling mode were micromachined in 250 µm thick 4H–SiC single crystals using an 800 nm wavelength, 120 fs, 1 mJ Ti:sapphire laser. Pulse energy, number of pulses and scan rate were varied to obtain a high etch rate and high quality features. Results showed that the etch rates are 2–10 µm per pulse, diaphragm thicknesses are 20–200 µm, surface roughness is 1–2 µm Ra and via hole drilling speeds are up to 25 µm per second. The etch depth control was well within ± 1%. High aspect ratio features with excellent spatial resolutions were obtained due to the absence of thermal damages such as a recast layer and contamination. Thus, femtosecond-pulsed laser ablation by virtue of its unique characteristics such as multiphoton ionization and the absence of lattice heating offers high speed, precision and accuracy in micromachining 4H–SiC wafers.