DRY PROCESSING: NEW TECHNIQUES FOR ETCHING SUBMICROMETER STRUCTURES.

A crucial step in the fabrication of electronic devices is the etching of desired patterns into a wafer. The National Research and Resource Facility for Submicron Structures (NRRFSS) at Cornell is one of the laboratories in which research in dry etching is yielding an assortment of improved processing techniques. These include plasma etching (PE), reactive-ion etching (RIE), and reaction-ion-beam etching (RIBE). The paper shows why dry processing has become the main technique for pattern transfer in VLSI etching technology, and what progress is being made in developing it.