Etching

• Removal of material from wafer surface

• Usually combined with lithography
• Permanently transfers the mask pattern from
the PR to the wafer surface
• Two types – Wet etching
-- Dry etching
Wet etching
 Wet etching
• Wafers are immersed in a tank of wet
etchant(mix of chemicals)
• Chemical reaction between wafer surface and
etchant chemicals removes the material
• A PR layer or hard mask like oxide or nitride
layer protects the rest of the layer
• Etch rate decides time of etching
• After etching wafers are rinsed and dried
Wet etching
Wet etching
Wet etching
Dry etching
Dry etching
 Dry etching
• Types
-Plasma etch
-Ion beam milling
-Reactive ion etch
• Preferred for small areas
• Provides more vertical side walls
• Removal rate is slower
Plasma etch
 Plasma etch
• Chemical etchant is introduced inthe gasphase
• For SiO2 CF4 is used
• Chamber is first evacuated before introducing
the gas
• RF electrodes generates the plasma that
ionises the gas
• Ionised gas attacks the oxide layer removing it
• Etch rates are much smaller
Ion beam milling
 Reactive ion etch
• Combines both plasma and ion beam etch
process to achieve both selectivity and
directionality.
• Selectivity much higher compared to plasma
etch
• This reduces the thickness requirement on the
mask