Etching basic information
Dry etching is a widely used technique in micro and nanofabrication to transfer lithographically patterned structures in underlying materials. The TDSU 1 runs several reactive ion etching systems to solve the different structuring issues. These systems combine physical and chemical etching mechanisms to achieve fast processes, which leads to structures with steep anisotropic profiles and a very high resolution.
One of the inductive coupled plasma etching systems (ICP-RIE) is used as a multi-purpose system for the anisotropic etching of silicon based materials, oxides, glasses, metals and III-V semiconductors. The other ICP-RIE system is dedicated mainly to deep etching of glass and fused silica.
With the cryogenic system we have the possibility to perform high aspect ratio etching of silicon using temperatures down to -130°C, which is characterized by very smooth sidewalls. For very deep silicon etching (> 100 µm) the MFCs, which are directly positioned at the chamber, also support the usage of standard Bosch processes at room temperature.
Plasmalab System 100 (Oxford Instruments)
Deep high aspect ratio etching of silicon via cryogenic or Bosch processes
Available gases: C4F8, SF6, O2
Allowed mask materials: resist and silicon based materials
System features:
- RIE plasma source up to 300 W and ICP plasma source up to 3000 W
- C4F8 and SF6 MFC directly positioned at the chamber to support faster gas switching for Bosch processes
- Heater/chiller substrate table -150 to 20°C
- Samples from a few mm size up to 4“ wafers
Plasmalab System 100 (Oxford Instruments)
Multi-purpose system for etching of silicon based materials, oxides, glasses, metals and III-V semiconductors
Available gases: CF4, SF6, CHF3, BCl3, Cl2, CH4, H2, Ar, O2
Allowed mask materials: resist, metals, silicon based materials
System features:
- RIE plasma source up to 300 W and ICP plasma source up to 1000 W
- End point detection system by laser interferometry
- Heater/chiller substrate table 10 to 60°C
- Samples from a few mm size up to 4“ wafers
PlasmaPro®100 Cobra (Oxford Instruments)
Deep high aspect ratio etching of fused silica and glasses
Available gases: C4F8, CF4, SF6, CHF3, H2, Ar, O2
Allowed mask materials: resist, metals, silicon based materials
System features:
- RIE plasma source up to 600 W and ICP plasma source up to 3000 W
- Directly coupled AMU for low reflective power and high reproducibility
- Heater/chiller substrate table -30 to 400°C
- Samples from a few mm size up to 4“ wafers
