LOW ENERGY ION BEAM ETCHING.

Abstract

Two developments in low energy ion beam etching are reported. The usable ion energy range for broad beam ion etching was extended to tens of ev by using a single extraction grid of fine aperture size. High ion current densities (up to 1. 0 ma/cm**2) are achieved below 100 ev ion energy while maintaining a collimated beam with low energy spread (about 10 ev). This capability was applied to reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) of Si and SiO//2. A quantitative parameter which characterizes the effectiveness of ion bombardment in enhancing chemical etching is introduced.