Types Of Etching In The Chip Manufacturing Process

Types of Etching in the Chip Manufacturing Process

This article briefly introduces two etching methods in the chip manufacturing process, etching (Etch) is a fairly important step in the chip manufacturing process.

Etching is mainly divided into dry etching and wet etching.

①Dry etching

Plasma is used to remove unwanted material.

②Wet etching

Corrosive liquids are used to remove unwanted materials.

1 Dry etching

Dry etching method:

①Sputtering and ion beam milling

②Plasma Etching

③High-pressure plasma etching

④High-density plasma (HDP) etching

⑤Reactive Ion Etching (RIE)

As with chemical etching, it is highly selective, etching only materials with the desired composition; It is highly anisotropic and etched in a single direction starting from the mask opening. The mechanism that achieves this is based on the use of high-energy particles to activate the reaction of chemicals with surfaces. As shown in the figure, ions are generated in the plasma and accelerate towards the surface and mask openings. The plasma also produces highly reactive neutral substances that are not accelerated by the electric field and therefore reach the surface in no preferred direction. When both ions and neutrals are present, i.e. in the horizontal part of the surface (e.g., at the bottom of an etched pit), a highly selective reaction is activated and the target material is removed.

We have etch liners like below:

0040-79913 Cathode Liner,W/leak Check Port,300mm

0040-79912 Liner Chamber Wleak Check Port,300mm Emax

0040-34866 Liner Cathode Mag Ring

2 Wet etching

Wet etching has a wide range of applications in semiconductor processes: polishing, cleaning, corrosion. Wet etching is a chemical process that involves the selective removal of material from a wafer using a liquid etchant. These etchans are typically made up of a variety of chemicals, such as acids, bases, or solvents, that react with the material to form soluble products that can be easily washed off. The etching process is driven by a chemical reaction at the material-etchant interface, and the etching rate is determined by the reaction kinetics and the concentration of the active species in the solution.

The advantages are: good selectivity, good repeatability, high production efficiency, simple equipment and low cost

The disadvantages are: it cannot be used for small feature sizes; A large amount of chemical waste will be generated.