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 IDsort ascending Cleanliness Primary Materials Etched Other Materials Etched Substrate Size Maximum Load (number of wafers) Gases Notes Stylus Tip Radius
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) MRC Reactive Ion Etcher
mrc 		Flexible
1

Typically used for sputter etching; Single wafer, direct load system; wafers/ pieces can be directly placed on electrode
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.
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 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.

Pages