A Total Concentration Fixed-Grid Method for Two-Dimensional Wet Chemical Etching

Abstract

A total concentration fixed-grid method is presented in this paper to model the two-dimensional wet chemical etching. Two limiting cases are discussed, namely—the diffusion-controlled etching and the reaction-controlled etching. A total concentration, which is the sum of the unreacted and the reacted etchant concentrations, is defined. Using this newly defined total concentration, the governing equation also contains the interface condition. A new update procedure for the reacted concentration is formulated. For demonstration, the finite-volume method is used to solve the governing equation with prescribed initial and boundary conditions. The effects of reaction rate at the etchant–substrate interface are examined. The results obtained using the total concentration method, are compared with available results from the literature.