Native Oxide Growth on Silicon Micro-Pillars

Abstract

This paper presents a study on monitoring the native oxide growth on silicon micro-pillars. It also presents a comparison between the rates of oxide growth on pillars fabricated using the reactive ion etching (RIE) approach and the metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) approach. The native oxide growth is monitored using photoluminescence (PL) measurements. PL measurements showed that native silicon oxide grows at a higher rate on MACE pillars compared to RIE pillars. SEM images showed that the MACE pillars exhibit a porous outer layer while the RIE pillars show a dense outer layer. It is concluded that the porosity of the pillars enhances the native oxide growth.