This paper contains a description of a new anisotropic dry etching technique (hot jet etching) which does not require ions or plasmas. The anisotropic etching is obtained from a directed flux of chemically reactive species. The reactive species are obtained by thermally decomposing comparatively unreactive feed gases in a resistively heated tube. Using Cl2, CF3Br, or SF6, Si and GaAs have been etched. Etch rates as high as 5 μm min−1 have been obtained with Cl2 and GaAs samples. High differential etch rates have been obtained, since there is no sputtering component to the etching. The anisotropic ratio of the etch depth to the undercutting distance is approximately 5 for GaAs with a feed gas of Cl2. The hot jet technique may make possible a new class of chemical etchants.
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Geis et al. (1986) studied this question.