Patent ID: 9748306
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: G01T,H01L

Claim:
1. A method of manufacturing a radiation detector comprising: (i) providing a layer of a first material on a substrate; (ii) selectively removing the first material from parts of the layer; and (iii) filling the removed parts of the layer with a second material; wherein one of the first or the second material comprises germanium, and wherein (ii) and (iii) in combination result in an array of elongate nanostructures, and wherein selectively removing the first material comprises: applying a mask material to define the material to be removed from the layer; anisotropically removing material from the layer using a first plasma etching process during which a passivating material is formed on side walls of features being etched; and subsequent to the first etching process, using a second plasma etching process to deepen the features created by the first etching process, the second etching process including use of an etchant species to anisotropically remove further material from the features etched by the first etching process; wherein the etchant species responsible for the removal of material from the features during the second etching process is collimated by those parts of the features formed by the first etching process, such that no further passivation is required during the second etching process.