Patent Application
20050231557
The disclosure relates to micro-fluid ejection assemblies and, in particular, to ejection assemblies having accurately formed flow features etched therein.
Micro-fluid ejection assemblies typically include a silicon substrate material that contains fluid openings, trenches, and/or depressions formed therein. The fluid openings, trenches, and/or depressions are collectively referred to herein as “flow features.” Such flow features may be formed by a wide variety of micromachining techniques including sand blasting, wet chemical etching and reactive ion etching. As the devices become smaller, such as for ink jet printhead applications, micromachining of the substrates becomes a more critical operation. Not all micromachining techniques are reliable enough to produce accurately placed flow features having similar flow characteristics in the substrates. Accordingly, the micro-fluid ejection assembly art is constantly searching for improved micro-fluid ejection assemblies that can be produced in high yield at a minimum cost.
With regard to the above, there is provided a micro-fluid ejection assembly including a silicon substrate having accurately formed fluid paths therein. The fluid paths are formed by a deep reactive ion etching process conducted on a substrate having a surface characteristic before etching selected from the group consisting of a dielectric layer thickness of no more than about 5000 Angstroms, and a substantially dielectric material free pitted surface wherein a root mean square depth of surface pitting is less than about 500 Angstroms and a maximum surface pitting depth is no more than about 2500 Angstroms.
In another embodiment, a substrate for an ink jet printer heater chip having accurately formed fluid openings therein is provided. The fluid openings are formed by a deep reactive ion etching process conducted on the substrate. The substrate includes a silicon substrate having a surface characteristic before etching selected from the group consisting of an oxide layer thickness ranging from about 0 to no more than about 5000 Angstroms, and a substantially oxide free pitted surface wherein a root mean square depth of surface pitting is less than about 500 Angstroms and a maximum surface pitting depth is no more than about 2500 Angstroms.
In yet another embodiment, there is provided a micro-fluid ejection assembly comprising a silicon substrate having accurately formed reactive ion etched fluid flow features therein. The etched fluid flow features are formed by a reactive ion etching process conducted on a substrate having a surface characteristic before etching selected from the group consisting of an oxide layer thickness of no more than about 5000 Angstroms, and a substantially oxide free pitted surface wherein a root mean square depth of surface pitting is less than about 500 Angstroms and a maximum surface pitting depth is no more than about 2500 Angstroms.
An advantage of embodiments described herein is that an etched substrate may be produced by deep reactive ion etching to provide accurately produced parts which meet or exceed critical tolerances for the parts. The parts may include a wide variety of flow features including, but not limited to, etched fluid openings or etched recesses for fluids such as inks. For proposes of this invention, “dielectric layer” and “dielectric material” include, but are not limited to, silicon oxides, silicon nitrides, silicon carbides, phosphorus spin on glass (PSOG) and boron doped phosphorus spin on glass (BPSOG).
Further advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the detailed description of preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which like reference numbers denote like elements throughout the several views, and wherein:
Embodiments as described herein are particularly suitable for micro-fluid ejection assemblies used in fluid ejection devices. An exemplary fluid ejection device 10 is illustrated in
An exemplary ink jet printer cartridge 12 is illustrated in
A small, cross-sectional, simplified view of a micro-fluid ejection assembly 14 is illustrated in
In order to provide electrical impulses to the heater resistor 34, the semiconductor chip 32 undergoes a number of thin film deposition and etching steps to define multiple functional layers on a semiconductor substrate such as silicon 42 (
The first dielectric layer 44 is preferably a field oxide layer of silicon dioxide having a thickness under the resistor layer 46 of about 10,000 Angstroms. However, the first dielectric layer 44 may also be provided by other materials, including, but not limited to, silicon carbides, silicon nitrides, phosphorus spin on glass, boron doped phosphorous spin on glass, and the like. The resistor layer 46 may be selected from a wide variety of metals or alloys having resistive properties. The first and second conductive layers 48 and 58 are typically metal conductive layers. The protective layers 50, 52, and 54 include passivation materials such as SiN and SiC and tantalum.
In order to define the various insulating, resistive, and conductive layers on the chip 32, multiple etching steps are conducted. Until now, there has been no control of the amount of oxide layer 44 remaining in the opening, via, or trench 40 location for the chip 32. As a result, dielectric material thicknesses, such as oxide layer thicknesses, in the via 40 location, before etching the vias may range from thicknesses of substantially greater than about 5000 Angstroms, to pitted silicon 32 surfaces devoid of dielectric materials. Such a variation in dielectric layer thickness, or over removal of the dielectric material in the via locations has a detrimental effect on the via formation process.
Thin films substances made of different materials exhibit markedly different etch rates when exposed to reactive ion etching. Additionally, reactive ion etching of such substances may occur along decidedly different mechanistic pathways. For example, etch rates of silicon dioxide are typically two orders of magnitude lower than pure silicon for equivalent plasma etching operating conditions. Typically, silicon dioxide etches about 100 to 150 times slower than pure silicon. Accordingly, an oxide may be used as a masking layer or etch stop layer when etching a silicon substrate. For purposes of the disclosure, references to “silicon oxide” are intended to include, silicon mono-oxide, silicon dioxide and SiOx wherein x ranges from about 1 to about 4.
With reference now to
Despite its beneficial characteristics as an insulating or dielectric material, it has been observed that the presence of certain dielectric materials, such dielectric layer and oxide 64/62, in reactive ion etch locations such as location 66 for a fluid opening or via 40 in the substrate 42 (
Without being bound by theory, and for the purposes of example only, the etch rate mechanism is believed to correspond to the following equation, assuming a linear etch rate for simplicity:
z=rsilicon*(t−h/roxide)+h,
where t≧h/roxide and where z is the etch depth of the trench, rsilicon is the etch rate of silicon, roxide is the etch rate of silicon dioxide, t is the etch time and h is the height of oxide in the trench. Thus, based on this, as the height or thickness h of dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 in the etch area 66 increases, the etch depth for a given period of time t decreases.
For example, for an oxide thickness h of 0.2 microns, and assuming a linear etch rate of silicon of ten microns per minute and for silicon oxide, an etch rate of 0.07 microns per minute, the etch depth z would be about 21.6 microns after five minutes. If the dielectric layer/oxide thickness h is 0.02 microns, the etch depth would be about 47.3 microns after five minutes. In other words, the etch rate for a substrate 42 containing an dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 having a thickness of 0.02 microns is more than twice the etch rate of a substrate 42 containing a dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 thickness of 0.2 microns in the etching location. Accordingly, an amount of dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 having a thickness of about 2000 Angstroms can significantly increase etching time. Furthermore, the presence of dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 in the active etch regions 66 may cause etching chamber contamination leading to a decrease in operation time between chamber cleanings thereby further increasing cycle etch times. One of the advantages of using a reactive ion etching process, such as deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) as opposed to other techniques such as grit-blasting, is the ability to etch a wafer's worth of substrates 42 quickly and simultaneously. In a DRIE process, a photoresist material 70 is applied to the substrate 42 to define the location 66 of the openings or trenches 40 in the substrate 42. If, on the other hand, cycle time is increased significantly, the economic advantages of DRIE may be diminished.
While substantially complete removal of dielectric layer/oxide 64/62 from the etch locations 66 on the surface 60 of the silicon substrate 42 would be the most desirable condition for reaction ion etching, as is often the case in technical endeavors, solutions to initial problems are often themselves wrought with undesirable consequences. For example, dielectric layer removal when accomplished through plasma etching often leads to formation of one or more pits 68 on the silicon surface 60 as shown in
Accordingly, silicon substrate 42 having a first dielectric layer thickness of no more than about 5000 Angstroms, at least in the via locations 66, can provide reasonable etching cycle times for DRIE etching of the vias 40. Accordingly, a preferred substrate 42 has an dielectric layer thickness ranging from about 0 to about 5000 Angstroms, most preferably from about 200 to about 5000 Angstroms. Likewise, the substrate 42 preferably has pitted surface characteristics in the via locations 66 that have a root mean squared pitting depth of less than about 500 Angstroms and a maximum pit depth of about 2500 Angstroms. Substrates 42 with such dielectric layer tolerances in the via or trench 40 areas exhibit improved etching rates as well as substantially uniform surface characteristics after etching.
As shown in
While specific embodiments of the invention have been described with particularity herein, it will be appreciated that the invention is applicable to modifications and additions by those skilled in the art within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
