Sandia National Laboratories has developed novel approaches to integrate pyrolytic carbon as a viable alternative material in microelectronic devices. Our work demonstrates fabrication of simple single layer and multiple layer devices, targeting future microelectronic applications.

We demonstrate a patterned photoresist on a silicon (Si) substrate, followed by a high temperature bake, and a xenon difluoride Si etch release process as a simple fabrication approach. Loading nanomaterials into the pre-pyrolized polymer establishes the capability to tune specific mechanical and electrical properties. Micromachining blanket carbon films using a dry etch process, allows for precise critical dimension control, and the ability to integrate carbon into complex multilevel device processing. Carbon is durable, adaptable, highly conductive, inexpensive, and easy to produce.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government.

Figure 1) SEM image of cantilever array dry etched and released in xenon difluoride.