Oxford Oxford Instruments Plasmalab System 100 . The Oxford Instruments Plasmalab system 100 in the Microlab is equipped with a loadlock chamber for handling the chlorine and fluorine chemistries used in etching of AlGaAs compounds.
Users can run preprogrammed etch recipes or etch directly through using the manual page of PC Plus.
The last method is convenient for monitoring etches of multilayered structures in which there is a high contrast in the layers' refractive indices at 632.8nm. It consists of a HeNe laser, various optics, a photodetector and a plotter. The RIE has been fully operational under the guidelines of the Microlab since December of 1996, with 9 students trained as qualified users. Besides the vertical anisotropic etching of AlGaAs compounds, this RIE is capable of performing highly composition-selective etching of GaAs against AlGaAs. Dry-releasing is desirable due to surface tension problems associated with wet processes.