Simulations and Parametric Investigations of Plasma Etching Mechanisms of GaAs Compounds

This work introduces a comprehensive analytic model of the sputtering mechanism present in IBE and RIE processes. Our final objective is to correlate the etch rate to the plasma reactor parameters. Experimental verifications for GaAs etching show a good agreement for IBE. In the case of RIE, the non perfect agreement is explained by the influence of effects such as flow rate and temperature not taken into account in the theoretical approach. We also present parametric investigations of GaAs etched in SiCl4 plasma and results of XPS analysis.