Back to Capabilities

Plasma Etch

Plasma and dry etch processing provides exceptional control over etch depth, profile, and selectivity for a wide range of materials, supporting applications including microelectronics, photonics, and MEMS fabrication.

Deep reactive silicon etching

  • Dedicated Bosch (DRIE) and cryo processing
  • Nanometre scale to hundreds of µm (through-wafer) etching
  • Sidewall profile and roughness control
  • Plasma dicing for die singulation of arbitrary shapes and layouts
Close-up of a reflective microchip wafer with engraved rectangular patterns, showcasing intricate design details.

Reactive ion etching

  • Dedicated SiO2, SiNx, and Si etching
  • O2 plasma surface activation and polymer etching
  • Plasma ashing for photoresist strip
Close-up of a silicon wafer displaying colorful, reflective patterns under light, on a blurred white background.

Metal and III-V etching

  • Dedicated etching for metals, compound semiconductors, and dielectrics
  • Reactive and sputter-based etch recipes via ICPRIE
  • Wide variety of process gases:  Cl2, BCl3, HBr, SF6, CHF3, O2,  Ar
  • Backside He cooling

Vapour HF etching

  • Dry oxide etch process for stiction-free release of MEMS devices
  • Selectively etch different sacrificial oxides without attacking other layers
  • Backside gas protection prevents etching oxide on wafer backside
A close-up view of a microchip structure with intricate, layered patterns in blue and orange hues. Text at the bottom provides technical details about the image and scanning electron microscope settings.