Reactive-ion etching
Videos
Reactive-ion etching is an etching technology used in microfabrication. RIE is a type of dry etching which has different characteristics than wet etching. RIE uses chemically reactive plasma to remove
A reactive-ion etching setup in a laboratory cleanroom.
Sputtering
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In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas
Reactive-ion etching
…where they collide with the samples to be etched. The ions react chemically with the materials on the surface of the samples, but can also knock off (sputter) some material by transferring some of their kinetic energy. Due to the mostly vertical delivery of reactive ions, reactive-ion etching can produce…
A commercial AJA Orion sputtering system at Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility
Ion thruster operating on iodine (yellow) using a xenon (blue) hollow cathode. High-energy ions emitted from plasma thrusters sputter material off the surrounding test chamber, causing problems for ground testing of high-power thrusters.
A commercial sputtering system