The comparison of reactive ion etching and plasma etching in a parallel-plate reactor

Reactive ion etching (RIE) and plasma etching (PE) of different materials (GaAs, Si₃N₄ SiO₂ and photoresist Microposit 1350 H) in freon 116 are compared in the present article. The importance of ion bombardment for the etching rate is evident from the experimental results. GaAs is etched only by RIE due to ion milling, the etching rates of Si₃N₄ and SiO₂ are 4 to 5 times higher by RIE than PE.