ICP-RIE: III-V, Metal & Silicon Etcher
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Description
The III-V, Metal & Silicon inductively-coupled plasma reactive-ion etcher (ICP-RIE) is an Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology Plasmalab System 100 ICP-RIE 380 system that is optimized for the etching of compound semiconductors, metals, and silicon. In addition to a wide range of gases for etching a variety of III-V materials and metals, this system is configured for highly-selective ICP-RIE of silicon via the pseudo-Bosch process, allowing silicon etching with SF6 and C4F8 gases as well as cryogenic silicon etching with SF6 and O2 over a temperature range of -140 to 300 °C. This system supports wafer sizes up to 6 inches.
Applications
- InP grating etch
- GaAs photonics device etch
- pseudo-Bosch of silicon
- Metals etch
- Cryogenic etch of silicon (available upon request)
Allowed Material in Etcher
- Etch materials: Si, SixNy, SiO2, Ge, InP, GaAs, Al, Mo, Nb, W, Ti
- Masks: PMMA/ZEP/SPR/AZ/maN resists, SiOx/Al2O3, Cr hard masks
- Other: Metal in etch stack (not exposed to plasma)
Etching Gas List
- SF6
- C4F8
- O2
- Ar
- Cl2
- SiCl4
- CH4
- H2
- HBr
Resources
SOPs & Troubleshooting
- General Use SOP
- Oxfords reservation and use policy
- Etcher toxic gas handling SOP
- Power Up Oxford ICP-RIE SOP
- Gas Status Board SOP
Process Documents
- Process Standards
- Aluminum Etch via Chlorine/Methane/Hydrogen (KNI Recipe)
- AlGaN/GaN Etch with Photoresist Mask
- InP Etch
- InP/ InGaAsP Laser Facet ICP Etching
- GaAs Via Hole Etch
- Selective GaAs Etch
- Silicon Waveguide Etch
- Silicon Nitride etch
- Hard Mask Oxide Etch
- Cryo-Si Etch
- Etch chamber cleaning recipes
- Comparison of etch rates using different sample-fixing oils
- Comparison of Pseudo-Bosch ICP-RIE Etch of SiO2-SiNx
- Al2O3 Etch in Oxford ICP and Plasmatherm RIE
Review Articles
- Guidelines for Etching Silicon MEMS Structures
- Etch rates for MEMS Processing - Part I
- Etch Rates for MEMS Processing - Part II
- Dry Etching of Electronic Oxides, Polymers, and Semiconductors
- Alumina etch masks for fabrication of high-aspect-ratio silicon micropillars and nanopillars
- David Henry's thesis on dry etching in the KNI's tools
Manufacturer Manuals
- Oxford III-V Metal Etcher System Manual (login to LabRunr required)
- Edwards QDP 80 dry vacuum pump Manual
Specifications
Manufacturer Specifications
System Features
- Universal base console that houses the electronic sub systems, control units, pneumatics, and turbomolecular pump
- PC 2000 Operating system
- ICP process chamber with 200 mm pumping port, view port and end-point-detection ports for optical emission spectrometer and laser interferometer
- Variable height 240 mm Cryo RIE electrode
- Parameter ramping software (Not Bosch)
- 100-mTorr, temperature-stabilized capacitance manometer for process control with an active penning gauge for base pressure measurement
- 200 mm pumping port is fitted with a 200 mm variable gate valve for chamber isolation and process pressure control
- Twelve line gas pod with three non-toxic and six toxic digital mass-flow-controlled gas lines
- Alcatel 1300 l/s MAGLEV turbo pump
- Single-wafer automatic insertion load lock with soft pump option
System Specifications
- Chamber wall heating 80 °C
- Cryo table range -140 to 400 °C
- ICP 380 mm remote high-density plasma source with 5 kW RF generator and automatic matching unit close-coupled to the source
- Substrate bias control by 30 / 300 W RIE source
- Helium back-side wafer cooling