RIE / Reactive Ion Etching

Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) is one of the two major categories of the plasma etching process. In a typical RIE, plasma is initiated under low pressure by applying a Radio Frequency (RF) voltage capacitively coupled to the substrate. Typical value for the RF frequency of the voltage is 13.56MHz. The generated electric field is applied at a power of a few hundreds of Watt. An RIE system has a low ionization efficiency and generates a low density plasma. Both features result in low etching rates making RIEs a good choice for thin film applications. In contrast to the typical isotropic etch profiles resulting from wet chemical etch processing, highly controllable isotropic and anisotropic etch profiles can be produced by RIE depending on the treated material and etching parameters (pressure, gas, power).

Innovation-el offers access to two RIE tools for dry etching at the micro/nanoscale of a wide range of materials (Si & III-V semiconductors, dielectrics, metals, polymers, etc.).