An Investigation into the Footing Profile Suppression in (110) Si Anisotropic Etching

Deep Si trenches with vertical sidewalls are critical structures in advanced MEMS sensors and microfluidic devices. (110)-oriented Si is specifically required for this purpose, as its crystallographic geometry inherently provides the nearly 90° vertical {111} planes. However, achieving precise morphology on (110) Si remains challenging due to the formation of unwanted V-shaped footing profiles at the bottom. This study establishes a systematically coupled experimental and numerical framework to investigate the anisotropic wet etching mechanism of (110) Si, quantifying the effects of KOH concentration (10–50 wt.%) and temperature (50–90 °C) on profile evolution. Experimental results demonstrate that 10 wt.% KOH at 70 °C yielded the most favorable morphology within the investigated range, with a minimized footing ratio (<2%). Based on these results, a dual-parameter kinetic regulation mechanism is proposed. Low concentration of KOH can minimize the crystallographic etching rate disparity (γ) between fast-etching {100}/{110} and slow-etching {111} planes, while the selected temperature helps maintain interfacial hydrodynamic stability. Furthermore, an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE)-based multiphysics model calibrated with Arrhenius kinetics was developed, which captures the overall trend of trench evolution and the dependence of footing formation on KOH concentration and temperature. This work not only provides a recommended process window for suppressing footing defects but also offers a trend-predictive simulation framework for orientation-dependent Si micromachining.