Specific Process Knowledge/Etch/ASE (Advanced Silicon Etch)

The ICP-DRIE (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Deep Reactive Ion Etcher) tool at Danchip is manufactured by STS and is called the ASE (Advanced Silicon Etcher). The main purpose of the ASE is etching of silicon using Bosch process.

The Bosch process:

The Bosch process uses alternation between an etch cycle and a passivation cycle. In the case of the silicon etching on the ASE, an etch (with SF₆ and O₂) and passivation (with C4F8) phases. Two recipes have been optimized for the ASE: A shallow etch shallolr and a deep etch deepetch.