Equipment Catalog

This ICP etching systems (Oxford Instruments Plasmalab100) has an inductively coupled plasma source for high-speed, anisotropic plasma etching. It uses fluorine-based gas chemistry to etch silicon and other materials. This system has demonstrated capability to etch vertical walls in silicon to a depth of 300 µm at etch rates of 3 µm / min with an aspect ratio (width of feature to etch depth) of 1:50. It has a laser interferometer endpoint detector (shared with the other Oxford ICP RIE tool) to help achieving an accurate etching depth. A major upgrade with a pulsed power generator has been scheduled in 2019, which is expected to significantly reduces the “notching” effect in silicon-on-insulator photonic devices fabrication.