Smoothing of as-etched silicon surface by thermal annealing in argon atmosphere

Reordering of silicon surface as a result of annealing in high temperature environment has gained interest recently. Annealing in pure hydrogen and preferably in reduced pressure has been studied for more than a decade to reduce the surface roughness that originates from wet or dry etching. The study has widened into high-throughput engineering involving now also argon atmosphere, and many applications are being investigated. The potential applications of silicon surface annealing include mirror surfaces and low-loss waveguides in integrated optics, electrical vias through silicon wafers, and various microsystems, such as membranes, filters, microresonators and microfluidic structures.