METHOD FOR PROTECTING CORNERS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MICROMECHANICAL STRUCTURES ON SILICON WAFERS DURING DEEP ANISOTROPIC ETCHING Russian patent published in 2003 - IPC

FIELD: micromechanics; manufacture of microprofiled integrated mechanoelectrical strain gage transducers. SUBSTANCE: method that may be used in developing and manufacturing integrated mechanical-quantity strain gage transducers or mechanoelectrical systems incorporating three- dimensional structures involves protection of corners of three-dimensional micromechanical structures of mechanoelectrical transducers in deep anisotropic etching of silicon by means of T-shaped elements of shielding mask of V-Cu -Cu metal structure including thin-film vanadium and copper (V-Cu ) structure and galvanic layer of copper Cu ; each of T-shaped shielding elements are made in the form of two strips one being longitudinal along crystallographic direction [110] of height B and other transversal of width III disposed in transversal direction at right angle to longitudinal strip; etching is conducted until longitudinal silicon elements shaped in vicinity of corner shielding mask in the course of anisotropic chemical etching are scoured down to boundary of original topologic area of transducer stiff center, this corresponding to moment of regular polygon shaping in base of three-dimensional figure of stiff center, to alignment of transducer topological layers, and to attainment of desired etching depth. EFFECT: enhanced sensitivity and linearity of integrated strain gage transducer operation. 2 cl, 4 dwg, 3 tbl