Silicon Carbide As A Mechanical Material

High quality 6-SiC films have been grown onto silicon substrates at temperatures of about 1000/spl deg/C and subsequently patterned using dry etching tech- niques. The extreme chemical inertness of the pat- terned B-SiC-on-Si films with respect to liquid elec- trolytes has been used to shape the underlying Si substrates into a variety of useful mechanical struc- tures. Possible applications to the fabrication of ca- pacitive silicon accelerometers and high-temperature pressure sensors are pointed out.