Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Our practical experiments highlight that aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) and gold-silicon (Au- Si) eutectics are fairly inert to the attack of both anisotropic and isotropic wet etchants of Si (e.g. KOH or HF/HNO3 solutions). Therefore, these interfacial eutectics can be used as etch-stop layers in wet etching-based bulk micromachining. This paper presents how Al-Si and Au-Si eutectic layers may be employed for applications whose production involves such operations (e.g. high-pressure sensors) and will discuss three major directions of interest: eutectic formation, diaphragm generation and application of the eutectic layer in a pressure sensor.