Plasma etching apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. Reactive ion etching apparatus comprising:
- a vessel;
an electrode for mounting a workpiece to be etched within said vessel;
cooling means for cooling said workpiece mounted within said vessel;
plasma generation means laterally displaced with respect to said mounted workpiece for creating a plasma overlying said workpiece,means for attracting ions from said plasma onto said workpiece; and
optical window means having a lateral dimension in excess of about one inch disposed in a wall of said vessel overlying said workpiece for providing optical access to said workpiece during etching.
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Abstract
Reactive ion plasma etching apparatus and method are based upon the discovery of enhanced uniformity of etching at low workpiece temperatures. With cooling to sufficiently low temperatures, spontaneous etching is inhibited and etching uniformity is controlled not by gas flow and pressure but rather by ion flux. As a result, one can eliminate uniformity enhancing apparatus which heretofore obstructed optical access to the workpiece, provide window means permitting optical access to a major portion of the workpiece and employ sophisticated optical monitoring techniques during the etching process.
91 Citations
10 Claims
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1. Reactive ion etching apparatus comprising:
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a vessel; an electrode for mounting a workpiece to be etched within said vessel; cooling means for cooling said workpiece mounted within said vessel; plasma generation means laterally displaced with respect to said mounted workpiece for creating a plasma overlying said workpiece, means for attracting ions from said plasma onto said workpiece; and optical window means having a lateral dimension in excess of about one inch disposed in a wall of said vessel overlying said workpiece for providing optical access to said workpiece during etching. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for reactively ion etching a workpiece comprising the steps of:
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disposing the workpiece on an electrode within a sealed vessel; evacuating the vessel to a low pressure in the range between 10-4 Torr and 10 Torr; forming a reactive plasma overlying the surface of said workpiece to be etched; cooling said workpiece to a sufficiently low temperature that etching reactants are adsorbed on said surface to be etched; and inducing bombardment of ions from said plasma onto said surface to be etched whereby etching is effected at and substantially confined to regions of the workpiece locally activated by ion bombardment. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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Specification