Image: SPTS A KLA Company
Vapor etching is another type of dry etch process. In vapor etching the reactive gas that is chosen will spontaneously reacts with a material in the vapor phase without needing to generate a plasma. An example of vapor etching is the etching of Si using XeF2 gas for MEMs devices. Navigate to the vapor etching for more information.
Xactix® XeF2 Release Etch Systems
Isotropic etching of silicon using xenon difluoride is an ideal solution for releasing MEMs (micro-electro-mechanical systems) devices. XeF2 shows high selectivity to silicon over almost all standard semiconductor materials including photoresist, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride and aluminum. Being a vapor phase etchant, XeF2 avoids many of the problems typically associated with wet or plasma etch processes.