Reactive ion etching of silicon using low-power plasma etcher

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of deep reactive ion etching of silicon using diode plasma etcher system with a low-power source. Silicon wafers were etched in a sulfur hexafluoride plasma and sulfur hexafluoride/oxygen plasma. The maximum achieved silicon etch rate was about 2 μm/min. The expediency of using dry reactive ion etching in combination with wet anisotropic etching of silicon for manufacturing of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) was demonstrated.