Plasma etching for III-V compound devices.

With the growing application of III-V compound materials in optoelectronic, logic and communications devices, feature sizes are becoming smaller and circuit sophistication is following silicon technology. The manufacture of more advanced devices requires a degree of profile and linewidth control that is nearly beyond the capability of wet chemical etching techniques. Plasma etching can easily meet current and future resolution requirements and, as in silicon technology, is becoming the preferred method of pattern transfer. In this paper, the fundamentals of plasma etching III-V compounds are reviewed, along with recent progress in process chemistry and application to device processing.