Fabrication of Pores in a Silicon Carbide Wafer by Electrochemical Etching with a Glassy-Carbon Needle Electrode

An electrochemical method for making pores in a silicon carbide (SiC) wafer, in which a glassy-carbon (GC) needle electrode was used for processing, is described. By bringing the GC electrode into contact with SiC at its tip end in 20 mol dm–3 HF solution and applying an anodic potential of or higher than 4 V vs Ag/AgCl to it, SiC was etched at the SiC/GC contact area, leading to pore formation in SiC. The diameter of the pore was almost the same as the diameter of the tip of the GC electrode (about 130 μm). By addition of sulfuric acid to the HF solution, the rate of pore formation was increased. As a result, the depth of pores formed after processing for 5 h at 10 V vs Ag/AgCl was increased from 15.3 μm to about 33 μm by addition of sulfuric acid at a concentration of 3.0 mol dm–3.