Home
Photo Deposition Etch Diffusion Wet Metrology Packaging Procedures
All tools
Build a Process Templates Export & Print
My Process:

Machines by Process Category: Etch

Materials can either be removed by wet etching (see process category "Wet"), or by dry etching where samples are exposed to reactive species in a plasma and a low pressure environment (i.e. vacuum). The resulting chemical species in the plasma then attack materials on the wafer surface, and produce volative reaction products.

Many materials are either etched by chlorine or fluorine chemistries, and the etchers follow those lines (e.g. SAMCO is Cl based, while plasmaquest is F based). The type of etch gas (e.g. Cl2 vs BCl3, or SF6 vs CF4) and additional gases (e.g. Ar, O2, N2) can be critical for enabling certain types of etches over others. The mixing of fluorine and chlorine chemistries is strongly discouraged, as it can result in chamber hysteresis and irreproducible results.

A plasma can be generated by different means. Some tools heat or cool the sample, or apply a bias to modify the reactions taking place. Often, photoresist is used as a mask material (but not if the sample is heated - as this would burn the resist) but depending on the tool a hard mask (e.g. SiO2) may be necessary.

View All
ProcessLabToolSubcategoryDescription
Color Code
  +  
EML plasmatherm PECVD, RIE Plasma Etch and Deposition
EML
  +  
ICL AME5000 RIE RIE etcher for frontend silicon processes
Green
  +  
ICL LAM490B RIE Chlorine based plasma etching of silicon
Green
  +  
ICL LAM590-ICL RIE Fluorine based plasma etching of silicon oxide and nitrides
Green
  +  
ICL Oxford-100_PECVD PECVD Dual chamber PECVD and plasma etch tool
Red
  +  
ICL Oxford-100_Etch RIE Dual chamber PECVD and plasma etch tool
Red
  +  
ICL rainbow RIE Chlorine based plasma etcher for metals
Green
  +  
TRL LAM590-TRL RIE Fluorine based plasma etching of oxide and nitrides
Red
  +  
TRL plasmaquest RIE Fluorine and Chlorine general purpose plasma deposition and etch tool
Red
  +  
TRL SAMCO RIE Chlorine based plasma etcher for III-V materials
Red
  +  
TRL sts1 DRIE Deep reactive ion etcher for silicon
Red
  +  
TRL sts2 DRIE Deep reactive ion etcher for silicon
Green
  +  
TRL sts-Pegasus DRIE Deep reactive ion etcher for silicon
Red
  +  
TRL UVozone-Au Clean Cleans residual organics
Red
  +  
TRL XeF2 RIE XeF2 isotropic etching of silicon
Red