Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fabrication of x-ray gratings for interferometric imaging by conformal seedless gold electroplating

Jefimovs, Konstantins ; Vila-Comamala, Joan ; Arboleda, Carolina ; Wang, Zhentian ; Romano, Lucia ; Shi, Zhitian ; Kagias, Matias LU and Stampanoni, Marco (2021) In Micromachines 12(5).
Abstract

We present a method to produce small pitch gratings for X-ray interferometric imaging applications, allowing the phase sensitivity to be increased and/or the length of the laboratory setup to be minimized. The method is based on fabrication of high aspect ratio silicon microstructures using deep reactive ion etching (Bosch technique) of dense grating arrays and followed by conformal electroplating of Au. We demonstrated that low resistivity Si substrates (<0.01 Ohm·cm) enable the metal seeding layer deposition step to be avoided, which is normally required to initiate the electroplating process. Etching conditions were optimized to realize Si recess structures with a slight bottom tapering, which ensured the void-free Au filling of... (More)

We present a method to produce small pitch gratings for X-ray interferometric imaging applications, allowing the phase sensitivity to be increased and/or the length of the laboratory setup to be minimized. The method is based on fabrication of high aspect ratio silicon microstructures using deep reactive ion etching (Bosch technique) of dense grating arrays and followed by conformal electroplating of Au. We demonstrated that low resistivity Si substrates (<0.01 Ohm·cm) enable the metal seeding layer deposition step to be avoided, which is normally required to initiate the electroplating process. Etching conditions were optimized to realize Si recess structures with a slight bottom tapering, which ensured the void-free Au filling of the trenches. Vapor HF was used to remove the native oxide layer from the Si grating surface prior to electroplating in the cyanide-based Au electrolyte. Fabrication of Au gratings with pitch in the range 1.2–3.0 µm was successfully realized. A substantial improved aspect ratio of 45:1 for a pitch size of 1.2 µm was achieved with respect to the prior art on 4-inch wafer-based technology. The fabricated Au gratings were tested with X-ray interferometers in Talbot–Laue configuration with measured visibility of 13% at an X-ray design energy of 26 keV.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Bosch process, Deep reactive ion etching, Gold, Grating, High aspect ratio, Phase contrast imaging, Seedless electroplating, Silicon, Visibility, X-ray interferometry
in
Micromachines
volume
12
issue
5
article number
517
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85106057249
ISSN
2072-666X
DOI
10.3390/mi12050517
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
id
4ff35451-cb55-4720-a12e-7de25b3b3ffe
date added to LUP
2023-11-27 08:47:27
date last changed
2023-11-28 14:57:24
@article{4ff35451-cb55-4720-a12e-7de25b3b3ffe,
  abstract     = {{<p>We present a method to produce small pitch gratings for X-ray interferometric imaging applications, allowing the phase sensitivity to be increased and/or the length of the laboratory setup to be minimized. The method is based on fabrication of high aspect ratio silicon microstructures using deep reactive ion etching (Bosch technique) of dense grating arrays and followed by conformal electroplating of Au. We demonstrated that low resistivity Si substrates (&lt;0.01 Ohm·cm) enable the metal seeding layer deposition step to be avoided, which is normally required to initiate the electroplating process. Etching conditions were optimized to realize Si recess structures with a slight bottom tapering, which ensured the void-free Au filling of the trenches. Vapor HF was used to remove the native oxide layer from the Si grating surface prior to electroplating in the cyanide-based Au electrolyte. Fabrication of Au gratings with pitch in the range 1.2–3.0 µm was successfully realized. A substantial improved aspect ratio of 45:1 for a pitch size of 1.2 µm was achieved with respect to the prior art on 4-inch wafer-based technology. The fabricated Au gratings were tested with X-ray interferometers in Talbot–Laue configuration with measured visibility of 13% at an X-ray design energy of 26 keV.</p>}},
  author       = {{Jefimovs, Konstantins and Vila-Comamala, Joan and Arboleda, Carolina and Wang, Zhentian and Romano, Lucia and Shi, Zhitian and Kagias, Matias and Stampanoni, Marco}},
  issn         = {{2072-666X}},
  keywords     = {{Bosch process; Deep reactive ion etching; Gold; Grating; High aspect ratio; Phase contrast imaging; Seedless electroplating; Silicon; Visibility; X-ray interferometry}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Micromachines}},
  title        = {{Fabrication of x-ray gratings for interferometric imaging by conformal seedless gold electroplating}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi12050517}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/mi12050517}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}