Ted J. Hubbard and Erik K. Antonsson
Engineering Design Research Laboratory
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Sensors and Materials, 1997, Volume 9, Number 7, Pages 437-448.
This paper presents a robust Cellular Automata (CA) model which predicts the three-dimensional etched shape as a function of time for anisotropic etchants and any initial mask shape. The model can simulate the etching of geometrically complex structures (including structures that intersect, etc.), and has moderate computational requirements. A 3-D simulation of anisotropic etching, such as this one, is a critical element of any structured MEMS design approach.