Reactive Ion Etching (RIE)
Plasma etching or Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) is one of the core processes on MiNaLab. Compared to wet etching RIE enables new possibilities such as etching of vertical structures independent of the crystal structure in the material. The RIE or dry etching also leaves you with the possibility to etch delicate structures without exposing them to a liquid that might ruin the structures by breakage or sticking particles.
Mostly we are doing RIE of dielectric films and Deep RIE (DRIE) of silicon. Since all three equipments are the same as typically used in a high volume MEMS production, at MiNaLab it is possible to simplify and shorten the process from R&D to a high volume MEMS production line. In MiNaLab we have three state-of-the-art production equipments for RIE, all three in the AMS200 series of silicon etchers from Alcatel:
- AMS200#1 is an “Alcatel AMS200 I-Speeder” set up with a very large temperature range going from room temperature to Cryogenic temperatures. This enables us to use special RIE processes such as Cryo DRIE, also this enables us with greater flexibility experimenting with more standard polymer containing plasma processes such as the so called Bosch DRIE.
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DRIE for through wafer holes. Average etch rate of 12 µm/min for 400 µm deep 50x50 µm² holes. |
- AMS200#2 is an “Alcatel AMS200 I-Speeder” set up for room temperature plasma etching. This tool is dedicated for RIE of dielectric films and DRIE of silicon. It is set up with automatic robot handling.
- AMS200#3 is the newest tool in the AMS200 series, the “Alcatel AMS200 I-Productivity”, also with automatic robot handling. The I-Productivity has greatly increased etch speed for our DRIE processes. It is also set up with LF biasing in addition to the standard RF bias enabling new process possibilities such as stopping on an oxide during DRIE without generating notching, meaning lateral etching damage is prevented at the silicon-oxide interface.
Contact person: Geir Uri Jensen