A Comparative Review of RIE, ICP-RIE, and ALE: Dry Etching Technologies for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication

As the semiconductor industry continues to evolve rapidly to meet the growing demand for high-performance, low-power chips driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G, process nodes have progressed to sub-nanometer scales. This advancement introduces increased challenges in terms of structural complexity, material diversity, and precision requirements. In this context, etching plays a critical role in enabling accurate pattern transfer and the formation of nanoscale structures throughout device fabrication. This paper reviews the development of semiconductor etching technologies by systematically introducing the working principles, key advantages, application scenarios, and inherent limitations of three mainstream dry etching methods: Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), Inductively Coupled Plasma Reactive Ion Etching (ICP-RIE), and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE). Through comparative analysis, ALE demonstrates significant advantages due to its atomic-level precision and low-damage characteristics. The paper highlights ALEs unique strengths and its potential as a next-generation mainstream etching technology, while also discussing current limitations and future research directions.