RIE Systems

Unlock the full potential of reactive ion etching with our benchtop Nanoetch system—engineered specifically for high-performance fluorine-based RIE applications with soft-etch feature.

Designed for advanced materials research, NanoEtch delivers industry-leading precision, uniformity, and process repeatability essential for today’s challenging etch requirements.

Soft Etching

Soft Etching is the application of precisely-controlled low powers for etching applications involving highly sensitive materials (such as graphene or PPA thermal resist) or where ultra-low etch rates are needed. This allows for the routine use of plasma powers <5 W (down to 100 mW or below, subject to configuration and process), with up to 20 mW control resolution.

An example application is the soft etching of very thin layers of thermal resist PPA. Heidelberg Instruments Nano utilise the soft etch feature in their high-resolution stack (lift-off/etching) using their market leading NanoFrazor Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography (t-SPL) .

They found that in a successful transfer process, it is important to reduce the PPA etch rate and the plasma ignition effect during the reactive ion etch step as much as possible. The soft etching capabilities of the nanoETCH allows reduction in the ignition effect to ~1 nm, opening doors to using even thinner layers of PPA (< 6nm) and further increasing the resolution and reliability of their NanoFrazor High-Resolution Stack processes.

Image courtesy of Heidelberg Instruments Nano

Fluorine-Chemistry Etching

For more aggressive reactive ion etch processes, nanoETCH systems can be configured for use with the fluorine-chemistry etchant gases SF6 or CHF3. For this, tools are equipped with a range of hardware and software enhancements.

Recent applications of fluorine-chemistry nanoETCH tools have included:

• h-BN sidewalls: A pit was etched into a multi-layer stack of h-BN, using Moorfield etching technology contained within a MiniLab 026. With SF6 as the etchant gas and a Soft Etching approach, just 7–8 layers of material were removed during a 2 minute process. Residual roughness at the bottom of the pt was just 1 atomic layer.
• h-BN bulk etching: By changing conditions, much higher etch rates were possible. Users were able to achieve an etch depth of 130 nm at a rate of 1.1 nm/s.
• SiO2 etching: A thermally oxidised Si wafer was etched using a nanoETCH tool using CHF3 as etchant gas. An ultra-low etch rate of ~1.3 Å/s was obtained, allowing for excellent control.
• Si etching: Using SF6 and N2 it is possible to etch 25nm of Si in 20 seconds for applications such as HR stack layers.