Milestones in deep reactive ion etching

Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) has virtually changed MEMS. The basic technology originally developed at Bosch overcomes design restrictions and compatibility problems related to the old wet-etching technology. Today, after a decade of "Bosch DRIE" in the field, a large variety of new MEMS devices is fabricated using this technology, and a broad DRIE-equipment supplier base is supporting costumer needs all over the world. The paper is telling the milestones from early development of the basic technology, the first steps into the MEMS-field, the way to mass-production, the first high-volume products, and the development of advanced solutions for high-rate etching, enhanced profile and uniformity control, and suppression of notching.