The localized gas discharge etching of materials

Rate of localized gas discharge etching of silicon

“…In the initial segments, V et is seen to increase with L, which can be explained by a decrease in the pulse period to pulse duration ratio of LGD. Under the experimental conditions, LGD behaves like an ac dis charge; that is, a cathode layer forms only at one of the electrodes in every half cycle of rf voltage and decom poses before its end [2,5]. This process then repeats itself near the other electrode.…”

“…In [1,2], we were the first to show that the localized discharge that fully corresponds to the geometry of the electrode surface elements projecting toward the material to be processed can be formed at a certain combination of gas pressure P and discharge gap length L. This specific feature of the localized gas dis charge (LGD) allowed us to apply it for dimensional mask free etching of a material surface. This etching was called "negative," since depressions form under projecting electrode elements.…”