AVS 50th International Symposium
    Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Tuesday Sessions
       Session MM-TuA

Paper MM-TuA10
Optical Characterization of Poly-Dimethyl Siloxane (PDMS) during Inductively Coupled Plasma Processing for Implementation in a PDMS-based Photonic Crystal*

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 5:00 pm, Room 320

Session: Fabrication and Characterization of MEMS Devices
Presenter: D.S. Park, University of Texas - Dallas
Authors: E.A. Joseph, University of Texas - Dallas
L.J. Overzet, University of Texas - Dallas
M.J. Goeckner, University of Texas - Dallas
D.S. Park, University of Texas - Dallas
M. Tinker, University of Texas - Dallas
J.B. Lee, University of Texas - Dallas
Correspondent: Click to Email
Poly-dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) is a silicone elastomer quickly gaining popularity in MEMS and EUV lithography markets. Material etch rates and plasma susceptibility however are not yet fully understood and may significantly effect optical MEMS device performance. In this work, PDMS etch susceptibility is studied in oxygen and CF4 inductively coupled plasma mixtures with in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry. Initial etch rates as high as 40 µm/hr using a 3:1 mixture of CF4:O2, nearly double that of optimized conventional RIE@footnote 1@ have been obtained, while pure oxygen plasma exposure has been found to increase the refractive index by 7%. A more detailed study of etch rate and dielectric constant dependence on gas flow will be presented along with the implications of using PDMS in a photonic crystal MEMS device. @FootnoteText@ *This work is supported by grants from NSF / DOE, CTS-0079783 & CTS-0078669 and NSF ECS-0296018.@footnote 1@J. Garra, T. Long, J. Currie, Schneider, R. White, and M. Paranjape, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 20(3), May/June 2002.