Wet Etching

Atomica offers a variety of wet etch capabilities, where the process technologies need to be matched to the design requirements.

Material removal is as vital as deposition when it comes to shaping of photonics, sensors, biotech and MEMS wafers during fabrication. Atomica ensures the highest levels of accuracy, consistency, and reliability to meet the strict performance requirements of its customers.

From design to production, Atomica excels in supporting the creation of high-performance devices requiring advanced deep silicon etching and precise process management. Using state-of-the-art wet etch techniques, our engineers optimize throughput and yield for a diverse range of products, such as MEMS sensors and mirrors, photonics components, microfluidic biochips, fiber blocks, lens arrays, silicon-optical benches, and 3D interconnected devices featuring through-silicon vias (TSVs).

Atomica’s Wet Etch capabilities

Atomica offers various wet etching capabilities. Read more of offering below.

  • Anisotropic Wet Etch Anisotropic wet etching is a chemical etching process that removes material from a substrate at different rates depending on the crystallographic orientation of the material, resulting in directional or structured etching.
  • Buffered Oxide Etch (BOE) Buffered Oxide Etch is a wet etching process that uses a mixture of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and a buffering agent like ammonium fluoride (NH4F) to selectively remove silicon dioxide (SiO2) while minimizing damage to underlying layers.
  • Acid Etch Acid etching involves the use of strong acids, such as hydrofluoric or nitric acid, to remove material from a substrate. The process can be isotropic or anisotropic, depending on the substrate material and acid mixture used.
  • Base Etch Base etching uses alkaline solutions, such as potassium hydroxide (KOH) or tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), to etch materials. This process often exhibits anisotropic etching in crystalline materials like silicon.
  • Wet etch clean Wet etch clean involves the use of liquid chemicals, such as acids or bases, to remove contaminants, residues, or thin layers from a substrate after processing steps like etching, deposition, or lithography.
  • Photo resist strip Photoresist stripping is the process of removing the photoresist layer after it has served its purpose as a mask for etching or deposition. It can be done using wet chemicals (such as solvents) or dry methods (such as plasma ashing).

For more details on our etching capabilities, please contact our technical team or download our fab technology guide.

 

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Other Capabilities

Why Atomica?

Atomica focuses on the success of our customers’ products, with rapid prototyping and scalable production. We are a leader in microfabrication, including photonics, sensors, biotechnology, and MEMS. We provide customers device optimization, faster speed to market, and cost-efficient fabrication. Atomica operates a 30,000-square-foot class 100 cleanroom near Santa Barbara, California, supporting a wide range of capabilities and materials with ISO 9001 certification and ITAR registration. We leverage sophisticated process control analytics, artificial intelligence inspection, advanced metrology, and proprietary fab operations systems to maximize efficiency.

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