Plasma etching characteristics

Plasma etching (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/plasma-etching)

Plasma etching is one of the main applications of plasma treatment and the plasma system (known as a ‘plasma etcher’) is commonly used in production of semiconductor devices. During plasma etching, the highly energetic and reactive species produced from a selected process gas, such as O2 or a fluorine bearing gas, bombard and react with the sample surface and, as a result, the materials at the surface are broken down to volatile and/or smaller molecules which are then removed by the vacuum system. It is possible to etch off parts, or the entire top layer, of the surface. In the plasma etching process, the etching characteristics must be clearly understood. The cause of the etching process should be identified based on the etching characteristics, and conditions according to various conditions should be optimized.