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 Technique Equipment name & NEMO ID Cleanliness Chemicals Primary Materials Etched Other Materials Etched Substrate Size Maximum Load (number of wafers) Process Temperature Range Gases Notessort descending Stylus Tip Radius
Dry Resist Removal, Dry Etching Technics Asher
technics 		Flexible
Four 4" wafers to pieces, one 6" or 8" wafer
Plasma Mode Etching, Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), Downstream/Remote Plasma Resist Removal Samco PC300 Plasma Etch System
samco 		Flexible
Four 4" wafers or two 6" wafers and one 8" wafer
20 ºC
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Oxford Plasma Pro ICP-RIE
Ox-gen 		Flexible
1
-10 °C - 60 °C
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Oxford Plasma Pro ICP-RIE ALE
Ox-ALE 		Flexible
1
0 °C - 40 °C
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Oxford Plasma Pro ICP-RIE Ox
Ox-Ox 		Clean
1
-20 °C - 40 °C
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) Oxford Dielectric Etcher
oxford-rie 		Flexible
1

4" wafers; can be adopted to do 6" or 8" wafers; pieces need to be bonded to carrier wafers
Aluminum and Titanium and Tungsten Wet Etching, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench CMOS Metal
wbclean3 		Semiclean
25 wafers

Al, Ti, or W wet etching or oxide etching
Vapor Etching Xactix Xenon Difluoride Etcher
xactix 		"All"
1

Isotropic Si etching; can be used for backside Si removal on small pieces
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) Plasmaetch PE-50
plasma-etch 		Flexible
Multiple

Low power, high pressure plasma; low bias, minimal damage. Often used for surface treatment.
Acid or Base Wet Etching, Piranha Cleaning, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Flexcorr 3
wbflexcorr-3 		Flexible

Manual wet etching of non-standard materials using acids or bases. Hot Plate available. GaAs not allowed.
Acid or Base Wet Etching, Piranha Cleaning, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Flexcorr 4
wbflexcorr-4 		Flexible

Manual wet etching of non-standard materials using acids or bases. Hot plate, HF bath, and controlled temperature bath available. GaAs not allowed.
Decontamination, Metal Clean, Piranha Cleaning, Wet Resist Removal, Acid or Base Wet Etching, Aluminum and Titanium and Tungsten Wet Etching, Silicon Wet Etching, Silicon Oxide Wet Etching, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Flexcorr 1
wbflexcorr-1 		Flexible

Manual wet etching of non-standard materials. Hot plate available. GaAs allowed in personal labware only.
Acid or Base Wet Etching, Piranha Cleaning, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Flexcorr 2
wbflexcorr-2 		Flexible

Manual wet etching of non-standard materials. Hot pots available. GaAs allowed in personal labware only
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Oxford III-V etcher
Ox-35 		Flexible
1

Metal etching or  Metal hard masks are not allowed. 4" wafers; can be adopted to do 6" or 8" wafers; pieces need to be bonded to carrier wafers; Restrictions: III-V materials only.
Vapor Etching SPTS uetch vapor etch
uetch 		"All"
1

Pieces need a carrier wafer; Isotropic Etching
Silicon Oxide Wet Etching, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Clean_res-hf
wbclean_res-hf 		Clean

Resist as mask allowed
Silicon Nitride Wet Etching, Wet Chemical Processing Wet Bench Clean_res- hotphos
wbclean_res-hotphos 		Clean

Resist should have been removed
Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching (ICP) Lam Research TCP 9400 Poly Etcher
lampoly 		Clean, Semiclean
25

Single wafer etch with auto-loading from a cassette. Equipment originally used for gate etching with high selectivity to thin gate oxides.
Downstream/Remote Plasma Resist Removal, Downstream/Remote Plasma Etching Matrix Plasma Resist Strip
matrix 		Flexible
25

Single wafer tool with auto loading from a cassette. Pieces need a pocket carrier wafer for transport. Chuck temperature controls wafer heating.
Downstream/Remote Plasma Resist Removal, Downstream/Remote Plasma Etching Gasonics Aura Asher
gasonics 		Clean, Semiclean
25

Single wafer tool with auto loading from a cassette. Pieces need a pocket carrier wafer for transport. Wafers heated by lamps.

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