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 MEM's 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 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.