Hi alexander,

You can try a vapor phase HF release using a mixture of
anhydrous HF & methanol. I tried this in a cleaning chamber
of a cluster tool. This was the focus of my masters thesis &
my master's thesis advisor Dr. Ruzyllo is running such a
facility in collaboration with Primaxx at Penn State Univ.

You can contact them & see if they will work with you on
your sample

Let me know if you need any more information
Good Luck with your expts

Anupama


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Oudalov, A. (EL)" 
> To: 
> Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 9:49 AM
> Subject: [mems-talk] Sticking of fragile MEMS structures
>
>
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I am trying to release a comb drive structure etched by
> > deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) on a SOI silicon wafer.
> I try to make very thin gaps between
> > the comb drives to have a large electrostatic force.
> > Since the spring constant of my supporting structure is
> > small I get problems when I release the chips in
> buffered hydro-fluoric acid (BHF). The adjacent combs
> > stick permanently and the device is broken. I also tried
> > critical point drying, the yield is little higher but
> > not satisfactory. Who knows about another, more gentle
> method to release my combs? >
> > Thanks a lot,
> > Alexander
> >
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Anupama V. Govindarajan
PhD Student
EE MEMS laboratory
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Washington
Campus Box 352500, Seattle WA 98195
Phone: (206)-221-5340
email: [email protected]