page_title: Etching (microfabrication)
hierarchical_section_title: Etching (microfabrication)
caption_attribution_description: English: etching tanks used to perform Piranha, Hydrofluoric acid or RCA clean on 4-inch wafer batches at LAAS-CNRS technological facility in Toulouse, France. Français&#160;: Bacs de gravure chimique utilisés pour des nettoyages RCA, à l'acide fluorhydrique ou au mélange piranha sur des lots de wafers de 4 pouces à la centrale de technologie du LAAS-CNRS à Toulouse, France.
context_page_description: Etching is used in microfabrication to chemically remove layers from the surface of a wafer during manufacturing. Etching is a critically important process module, and every wafer undergoes many etching steps before it is complete.
  For many etch steps, part of the wafer is protected from the etchant by a "masking" material which resists etching. In some cases, the masking material is a photoresist which has been patterned using photolithography. Other situations require a more durable mask, such as silicon nitride.
context_section_description: Etching is used in microfabrication to chemically remove layers from the surface of a wafer during manufacturing.  Etching is a critically important process module, and every wafer undergoes many etching steps before it is complete.
  For many etch steps, part of the wafer is protected from the etchant by a "masking" material which resists etching.  In some cases, the masking material is a photoresist which has been patterned using photolithography.  Other situations require a more durable mask, such as silicon nitride.
caption: Etching tanks used to perform Piranha, Hydrofluoric acid or RCA clean on 4-inch wafer batches at LAAS technological facility in Toulouse, France
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.2.00", "Image DateTime": "2007:10:13 13:08:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "27700", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "27828", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9374", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:10:13 13:08:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:10:13 13:08:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "49", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "27670", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}