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US 8,273,663 B2Granted
Process for anisotropic etching of semiconductors
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsTerry L. Smith, Jun-Ying Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided for anisotropically etching semiconductor materials such as II-VI and III-V semiconductors. The method involves repeated cycles of plasma sputter etching of semiconductor material with a non-reactive gas through an etch mask, followed by passivation of the side walls by plasma polymerization using a polymer former. Using this procedure small pixels in down-converted light-emitting diode devices can be fabricated.
Claims14
A method of anisotropically etching a semiconductor comprising:
- providing a II-VI semiconductor having an etching mask thereon in a vacuum chamber;
- sputter etching the II-VI semiconductor through the etching mask, with a nonreactive etching gas to remove material from the surface of the semiconductor and to provide at least one etched surface;
- introducing a polymer former into the vacuum chamber;
- polymerizing the polymer former onto the exposed surfaces of the II-VI semiconductor;
- and
- repeating the etching step and the polymerizing step to form an etched II-VI semiconductor.
3 more elements
A method of anisotropically etching a semiconductor comprising:
- providing a semiconductor having an etching mask thereon in a vacuum chamber;
- sputter etching the semiconductor through the etching mask, with a nonreactive etching gas to remove material from the surface of the semiconductor and to provide at least one etched surface;
- introducing a polymer former into the vacuum chamber;
- polymerizing the polymer former onto the exposed surfaces of the semiconductor;
- and
- repeating the etching step and the polymerizing step to form an etched semiconductor;
- wherein the etched semiconductor is a part of a light-emitting diode.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.