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Monitoring Hydrogen Peroxide Using an Electrochemical Method During Metal Assisted Chemical Etching for Silicon

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Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays a vital role in some of the metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) processes for silicon. However, it evaporates easily during etching at higher temperatures and this makes the process difficult to control. As a result, the MACE process for the inverted pyramid (IP) texturization that uses H2O2 is industrially unattractive. Herein, we proposed an innovative method to monitor H2O2 during the MACE process with an electrochemical method. The screen-printed electrode (SPE) modified by reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was used. The electrode demonstrated excellent electrochemical performance and could monitor the changes of H2O2 concentration with cyclic voltammetry (CV). Interestingly, the presence of copper (Cu) in the etching solution catalyzed not only the etching process, but also the electrochemical reduction of H2O2. With a consistent H2O2 concentration measured by the electrode, the reflectivity and structural morphology of the etched wafers could be controlled easily. The electrode is disposable, and the fabrication process is rapid and inexpensive, which is suitable for real time control of the MACE processes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the United Renewal Energy Co. through the Advanced Green Energy Project.

Funding

This work was sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the United Renewal Energy Co. through the Advanced Green Energy Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan

    Chung-Wen Lan, Subbiramaniyan Kubendhiran, Gavin Sison & Hsiao Ping Hsu

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  1. Chung-Wen Lan
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  2. Subbiramaniyan Kubendhiran
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  3. Gavin Sison
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  4. Hsiao Ping Hsu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Subbiramaniyan Kubendhiran (SK), Gavin Sison and Hsiao Ping Hsu. The research idea was from Chung-Wen Lan (CWL) and the first draft was written by SK, and revised by CWL. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chung-Wen Lan.

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Lan, CW., Kubendhiran, S., Sison, G. et al. Monitoring Hydrogen Peroxide Using an Electrochemical Method During Metal Assisted Chemical Etching for Silicon. Silicon 14, 5673–5681 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-021-01348-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-021-01348-1

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