Report on Reactive Ion Etching
Technology of μSystems + μElectronics (SMA) Laboratory
Smart Systems Hochschule Furtwangen, Germany
Group-4
Patel Milin Nandish Trivedi
milin.jaileshkumar.patel@hs-
furtwangen.de
Pratik Kalsariya Ravilal Velani
Abstract— This article is a brief review of dry etching as
applied to pattern transfer, primarily in silicon technology. It
focuses on concepts and topics for etching materials of
interest in micromechanics. The basis of plasma-assisted
etching, the main dry etching technique, is explained and
plasma system configurations are described such as reactive
ion etching (RIE). An important feature of RIE is its ability
to achieve etch directionality. The mechanism behind this
directionality and various plasma chemistries to fulfil this
task will be explained. Plasma etching is extremely sensitive
to many variables, making etch results inconsistent and
irreproducible. Therefore, important plasma parameters,
mask materials and their influences will be treated. Moreover,
RIE has its own specific problems, and solutions will be
formulated. The result of an RIE process depends in a non-
linear way on a great number of parameters. Therefore, a
careful data acquisition is necessary. Also, plasma
monitoring is needed for the determination of the etch end
point for a given process. This review is ended with some
promising current trends in plasma etching
I. INTRODUCTION
Reactive ion etching (RIE) is a plasma process where
radiofrequency (RF) discharge-excited species (radicals, ions)
etch substrate or thin films in a low-pressure chamber. RIE is
a synergistic process between chemically active species and
energetic ion bombardment. RIE is faster than either pure
physical ion bombardment or spontaneous chemical etching.
Because ion bombardment is directional, RIE has anisotropic
character, with reduced lateral etch rate and vertical (or nearly
vertical) sidewalls. RIE is essential when narrow lines or
channels are needed, or when high aspect ratio structures need
to be fabricated. RIE of silicon is independent of crystal
planes, and therefore any shape can be fabricated, unlike
anisotropic wet etching. Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) is
an extension of RIE that enables high-rate etching of deep
structures.
Vivek Sangani
Shoeb Mohiuddin
Mohammed
II. FACTORS AFFECTING ETCH QUALITY
Regardless of the technique used (wet or dry), the etch
quality is influenced by several factors. A few important
factors for microsystems include etch rate, directional control
and selectivity.
1) Etch rate – The rate at which the material is removed
from the wafer.
2) Directional control – Since etch can occur in all
directions, it is important to be able to control the direction of
the etch. Directional control results in achieving the desired
"shape" through the type of etch profile (isotropic,
anisotropic or a combination of both)
3) Selectivity – The property of the etchant which
permits it to selectively etch specific materials at a faster etch
rate than other materials on the wafer. Selectivity is the ratio
defined by the following:
𝐸𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑒𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑
sensitivity =
𝐸𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑁𝑂𝑇 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑒𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑
III. OPERATION OF PLAMA ETCHING SSYTEM
Dry etch is normally used to remove selected areas from the
surface layer rather than bulk material of a substrate or a
sacrificial layer. Dry etch can be a chemical etch, physical etch
or both. Reactive ion etchers (RIE) provide the parameters for
both types of etching.
Different Etch Mechanism:
The plasma etching process usually consists of two
components, the purely physical sputter effect and a chemical-
reactive component.
Physical Effect:
Wafers are placed on a negatively charged cathode inside a
vacuum chamber. A gas is introduced into the RF-powered
chamber under low pressure (e.g., <50 torr). A plasma is
struck (ignited). In the chamber, the gas molecules pass
 through the plasma and collide with high energy electrons.
The energy is transferred from the electrons to the gas etchant
molecules. These collisions result in high-energy state
positive ions and free radicals. These positive ions are
attracted to the negatively charged wafer. The ions accelerate
as they move toward the wafer. When the ions hit the wafer,
surface layer molecules are removed. This process continues
until the pattern is etched through the surface layer, exposing
the underlying layer.
Chemical Effect:
Chemical etching requires the presence of plasma energy
and a select gas (the chemical etchant) to etch the wafer's
surface layer. The process begins the same way as the physical
etch process: a plasma is struck, and collisions occur between
high energy electrons and gas molecules. However, in
chemical etching, it is the free radicals formed from the
collisions that perform the etch rather than the positive ions.
Free radicals are atoms, molecules or ions with unpaired
electrons making them highly reactive.
Through the collisions that take place in a plasma, free radicals
and positive ions are formed. Because the radicals generate
faster and survive longer than ions, more radicals are available
in the plasma. Once produced, the free radicals travel towards
the wafer where they are adsorbed by the material on the wafer
surface. A chemical reaction occurs between the material to
be etched and the radicals. By-products of the reaction desorb
from the surface and diffuse into the gas present in the
chamber. [3]
Dry Etch Process Parameters:
The two critical parameters in the dry etch process are
pressure and RF power.
i) Chemical etching requires high-range pressures
and low-range RF power levels.
ii) Physical etching requires low-range pressures
and high range RF power levers.
IV. BASIC METHODOLOGY OF REACTIVE ION ETCHING
Reactive ion etching (RIE) uses mid-level RF power and mid-
range pressure to combine both physical and chemical etching
in one process. The positive ions from the plasma bombard
the wafer's surface (physical etch) at the same time that the
free radicals adsorb to the surface (chemical etch).This
process program can control the amount of physical vs.
chemical etch by adjusting the process pressure or RF power.
An increase in RF power will increase the physical etch while
an increase in process pressure will increase the rate of
chemical etch. This process provides high selectivity ratios. It
also produces anisotropic profiles on features less than 3
microns wide. Its ability to capitalize on the advantages of
both physical and chemical etching makes RIE an invaluable
tool in the manufacture of microsystems components.[1]
V. REACTIVE CONDITION CONTROL:
Controlling reaction conditions such as temperature,
concentration of chemicals, and reaction time. To obtain well
defined products, it is often necessary to control these reaction
conditions precisely and uniformly.
A. Temperature
Needless to say, temperature is the most important
parameter in RIE etching. Together with the entropy and
enthalpy it rules every energy step in the reactor such as
adsorption and reaction. Many sources are known to increase
the temperature at the substrate surface such as (i) ion
bombardment, (ii) exothermic reactions at the substrate
surface, (iii) r.f. heating due to eddy currents, and (iv) gas
heating. Commonly, to stabilise the surface temperature the
target is cooled by circulating water (or other liquids) through
the target platen. Of course, the wafer has to be clamped
sufficiently (e.g. mechanical, electrical or vacuum grease) to
maximize the heat transfer from the substrate to the target.
Alternatively, gases like helium may be added to the plasma
to cool the substrate from the frontside or helium backside
cooling can be utilized.
B. Reactor materials
The choice of the reactor and target materials is of critical
importance and may result in (un)desirable etch characteristics
such as depletion of reactant.
VI. DEEP RIE
A special subclass of RIE is deep RIE (DRIE). Deep
reactive ion etching is used to etch deep cavities (or trenches)
in substrates with relatively high aspect ratios (the ratio of a
cavity's depth to its width). These cavities can be hundreds of
micrometers deep while only a few micrometers wide. Aspect
ratios as high as 50:1 can be achieved with DRIE.
RIE and DRIE are dry etch processes that use both
chemical and physical etch to form the required
interleaving shapes. DRIE provides the high aspect ratio
cavities required for the advancing technologies of
semiconductor, micro and nano systems.
VII. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
It should now be obvious that RIE is an incredibly
complex technique and it takes quite some time before
one is familiar with it. Unfortunately, this is not all: RIE
has its own specific problems and this section will
examine a few of them.
A. Roughness
A major problem during etching Si vertically is the forming of
‘grass’ or ‘black silicon’ on the surface, because of all kinds
of micro-mask deposited or grown on the Si. Spikes formed
due to dirty wafers before etching are easily prevented by
giving the wafer a precleaning step, the redeposition of mask
material decreases for low ion energies (thus low self-bias),
and the growing of inhibitor particles is excellently controlled
when a slightly lateral etching is allowed.
B. ARDE
Currently, in micromechanics the etch depth of trenches
increases while the trench width (or opening) stays the same
or will become even smaller. The aspect ratio (depth/width)
therefore increases and aspect-ratio dependent etching
(ARDE) will become important. ARDE is a collective noun
for (1) sidewall bowing i.e. the deflection of ions to sidewalls
during their trajectory along these walls, (2) feature size
dependence of profiles i.e. different tapered profiles are
observed for different trench openings, and (3) RIE lag i.e. the
effect that smaller trenches are etched slower, positive lag, or
faster, negative lag, than wider trenches. These are well
known phenomena.[3] After Etching:

VIII. MEASUREMENT OF DEPTH OF WAFER: Pos Measu Measu Measu Measu Meas
We used thee DektakXT® stylus profiler to measure itio remen remen remen remen ureme
the depth of photoresist before and after etching at 9 n t1 t2 t3 t4 nt 5
different positions. It displays current data while also
1 2,4275 2,4861 2,4796 2,5091 2,515
revealing other possible analyses.
3 8 0 91
4 2,3674 2,4328 2,4900 2,5482 2,588
8 0 6 6 36
7 2,4390 2,4567 2,4796 2,5091 2,515
5 8 0 91
8 2,4723 2,6089 2,7325 2,8713 2,956
8 5 8 3 61
13 2,4208 2,4572 2,4855 2,5300 2,554
7 9 2 6 04

Etch rate:
Figure: Measurement points
IX. CALCULATIONS AND RESULTS
We Calculated the etch rate at all 5 points of the wafer. Then
determined the uniformity of the standard etch program by
etching a photoresist layer and finding the average value and
the standard deviation of Δd.

RF set at 5.5%
Gas Percentage of SF6=60%
Pressure setting at 0.4m Torr
Oxygen percent set at 1%
Δt = 11 minutes.
(All units are in µm range)
Before etching:(wafer with photoresist)
It is observed that the maximum etch rate (R) is at Position 4
Values for position 1,4,7,13,8 and the minimum etch rate is at Position 1 of the wafer.

Pos Measu Measu Measu Measu Meas Etch Uniformity:

itio remen remen remen remen ureme
n t1 t2 t3 t4 nt 5
1 1,7736 1,7854 1,7961 1,8397 1,842
5 2 0 3 74
4 1,7489 1,7537 1,7803 1,7878 1,790
8 8 5 2 03
7 1,7592 1,7785 1,7878 1,8216 1,827
7 5 7 6 08
8 1,7514 1,7976 1,8502 1,9101 1,942
1 2 4 1 33
13 1,7423 1,7594 1,7633 1,8069 1,820 Standard Deviation:
9 8 5 8 31

Where = average
We got s= 0,08104065
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION:
XI. REFERENCES
The relative error for Δd at the midpoint for all vertical and
horizontal positions after etching. 1) A Survey on the Reactive Ion Etching of Silicon
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Etch Rate(nm)vertical 6(1):14 · March1996
2) Oehrlein G S 1990 Reactive Ion Etching: Handbook
0,0725754 0,0626209 of Plasma Processing Technology ed S M Rossnagel (Park
0,08 0,06119…
55 09 Ridge, NJ: Noyes) p 196
0,06 3) Southwest Center for Microsystems Education
(SCME) Fab_Etch_AC00_PG_051514
0,04
4) Biomedical applications Surface preparation
0,02 techniques for biomedical applications J.H. Wang, in
Coatings for Biomedical Applications, 2012
0
1 4 7
Series1 0,061197273 0,072575455 0,062620909

Uniformity of the etch rate displayed in Excel(Vertical

position)

Etch Rate(nm)Horizontal
0,09220… 0,0725754
0,1 0,0667027
55 27
0,08
0,06
0,04
0,02
0
8 4 13
Series1 0,092207273 0,072575455 0,066702727

Uniformity of the etch rate displayed in Excel(Vertical

position)

It is observed that in the horizontal etch rate, the etch rate is

maximum at position 4 towards the center of the wafer than
the edge.

Selectivity:

The selectivity S of an etch process is defined as the relation

of the vertical etch rates rv of different layers.

S = rv (layer 1) / rv (layer 2)

We also observed that the selectivity was on a higher side,

because of which we have high etch rate of Silicon to
Photoresist.

X. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The experiment on Reactive Ion Etching under

Microtechnology and Microelectronics Laboratory was
performed and successfully completed under the guidance
and supervision of Dr. S. Keshavarzi.