Etching is a broad term that is used to describe the removal of material from your sample. The sub categories may be helpful for narrowing down your search, and be aware that there may be more than one technique and/or tool that could be used for your process. 

  • Dry etching uses gaseous chemistries and plasma energy to etch materials from the sample. 
  • Wet etching uses liquid chemistries to etch materials from samples. 
  • Vapor etching uses HF Vapor to etch materials. It is primarily used to etch structures that would be damaged during the rinse and dry process in a standard wet etch.
Processing Techniques Equipment name & NEMO IDsort ascending Teaser Blurb Cleanliness Location
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) MRC Reactive Ion Etcher
mrc

The MRC is a general purpose, plasma reactive ion etching system, used to etch a variety of materials, including metals, oxides, nitrides, silicons, and some organic films.

Flexible SNF Paul G Allen L107 Cleanroom
Downstream/Remote Plasma Resist Removal, Downstream/Remote Plasma Etching Matrix Plasma Resist Strip
matrix

The Matrix plasma asher is used to strip photoresist from contaminated wafers using a combination of oxygen plasma, high power, higher pressure and a heated chuck (platen).

Flexible SNF Paul G Allen L107 Cleanroom
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Lam Research TCP 9400 Poly Etcher
lampoly

Lam 9400 TCP Poly Etcher ; Clean category; for poly and Si etches; maximum etch depth 3um.

Clean, Semiclean SNF Paul G Allen L107 Cleanroom
Downstream/Remote Plasma Resist Removal, Downstream/Remote Plasma Etching Gasonics Aura Asher
gasonics

The Gasonics Aura Asher is an automated down stream microwave plasma system used for stripping photoresist of 4 inch wafers in the 'clean' cleanliness group.

Clean, Semiclean SNF Paul G Allen L107 Cleanroom

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