For  my capstone project I will be using an opportunity that I was offered at my job. I work as a student assistant at Ohio State’s Nanotech West Laboratory. The lab is a user facility which means that professors and companies pay a fee to be able to access the facility. My position is a part of the staff. I usually do chemical and supply inventory as well as basic machine cleaning. Yet I am also trained to use many of the machines in the lab which I can use for when I am sent to do a process.

The lab bought an etcher a few years ago and is missing some information therefore I was assigned to look into the etch rate ratio of silicon wafer to photoresist. The samples that are placed into the etcher are silicon wafers/discs which have a resin, called photoresist, on them. The resin forms a pattern on the wafer. When placed in the etcher, a plasma beam is shot at the sample causing all the material at the top of the sample to be removed. Areas of the silicon wafer that are under the photoresist are unaffected until all the resin has been removed.

It is important to know the relative etch rate of the silicon wafer to photoresist because that way users can determine how thick to make their photoresist to protect the wafer underneath and to make used the etch isn’t too long that the wafer is cut through.

This experiment will also need preliminary steps in order to prepare the wafers to be etched. This includes the photolithography process which is where photoresist is placed on the wafer.