Nanometer-Scale Conversion of Si3N4 to SiOx for Applications in Lithography, Micromachining, and Selective-Area CVD

Abstract

We present the use of scanning probe oxidation of Si3N4 masks for performing nanolithography, nanomachining, and nanoscale epitaxial growth on silicon. Three most unique features of this approach are presented: (i) exceptionally fast oxidation kinetics using silicon nitride masks (∼30 μm/s at 10 V for a ≈5 nm thick film), (ii) selective-area anisotropic etching of Si using a Si3N4 etch mask, (iii) selective-area chemical vapor deposition of Si using a SiO2/Si3N4 bilayer growth mask.