Dry etching is a technique where a plasma of reactive gases is used to remove material from a surface via a complex combination of reactions. These can be simplified to the interaction of the ions, neutral species and free radicals with a surface depending on the system design including reactor chamber structure and power generation in the system.
LNL is equipped with several plasma etching techniques depending on the desired application. There are several RIE parallel plate systems for well controlled anisotropic etching including two APEX RIE-ICP systems with one dedicated to Chlorine based chemistry primarily for III-V etching processes and one using fluorine based chemistry for processing Si and related materials. We also have systems with isotropic capabilities dedicated to cleaning processes for resist stripping, descum and surface activation of wafers.
Talk to tool responsible if you are unsure which tool and process you require.
