Wafer-scale three-dimensional (3D) surface enhancement Raman scattering (SERS) substrates were prepared using the plasma etching and ion sputtering methods that are completely compatible with well-established silicon device technologies. The substrates are highly sensitive with excellent uniformity and reproducibility, exhibiting an enhancement factor up to 10(12) with a very low relative standard deviation (RSD) around 5%. These are attributed mainly to the uniform-distributed, multiple-type highdensity hot spots originating from the structural characteristics of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) decorated Si nanocone (NC) arrays. We demonstrate that the trace dimethyl phthalate (DMP) at a concentration of 10(-7) M can be well detected using this SERS substrate, showing that the AgNPs-decorated SiNC arrays can serve as efficient SERS substrates for phthalate acid esters (PAEs) detection with high sensitivity. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.