Ion beam etching Scia Systems Coat 200 (SCIA)

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Ion beam etching (IBE) removes material from the etch target by bombardment with directed and precisely controlled ion energies. IBE is also referred to as ´ion beam milling.´

The IBE source generates plasma from a noble gas, typically argon. A set of electrically biased grids establishes the ion beam energy and angular divergence. The ion beam strikes the substrate, removing material by physical sputtering.

Ion beam etching offers directional flexibility not available in other plasma processes. While the etch rate with IBE is typically lower than for reactive ion etching (RIE), IBE offers high precision (high anisotropism) for applications that demand exacting profile control. Also, ion beam etching can be used to remove materials when RIE is ineffective. Ion beam can etch alloys and composite materials that are not compatible with RIE.

A tilting and rotating substrate stage allows the angle of incidence of the ions to be adjusted. This affects sputtering yield and resulting topography. Tilting and rotating the substrate during etching can substantially improve etch profiles and avoid material redeposition.

Endpoint control is available with SIMS (secondary ion mass spectroscopy) to monitor sputtered material species, allowing etching to be stopped at specific layers.

Ion-beam etching has many applications, including nanomachining of magnetic transducers and MEMS devices, and trimming of surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters. A newer application is the fabrication of high-performance non-volatile memory, specifically ´spin transfer torque´ MRAM (magnetoresistive random-access memory).

Publications:

• Wang, Y.; Guo, M.; Davídková, K.; Verba, R.; Guo, X.; Dubs, C.; Chumak, A. V.; Pirro, P.; Wang, Q., 2025: Fast switchable unidirectional forward volume spin-wave emitter. PHYSICAL REVIEW APPLIED 23(1), p. 1 - 10, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.014066; FULL TEXT
  (MIRA-EBL, RIE-FLUORINE, SCIA, EVAPORATOR)
• SCHMOLL, D.; SERHA, R.; PANDA, J.; VORONOV, A.; DUBS, C.; URBÁNEK, M.; CHUMAK, A., 2025: Elimination of substrate-induced ferromagnetic resonance linewidth broadening in the epitaxial system YIG-GGG by microstructuring. LOW TEMPERATURE PHYSICS 51(6), p. 724 - 730, doi: 10.1063/10.0036749; FULL TEXT
  (ML3-BABY, SCIA)
• KNAUER, S.; DAVÍDKOVÁ, K.; SCHMOLL, D.; SERHA, R.; VORONOV, A.; WANG, Q.; VERBA, R.; DOBROVOLSKIY, O.; LINDNER, M.; REIMANN, T.; DUBS, C.; URBÁNEK, M.; CHUMAK, A., 2023: Propagating spin-wave spectroscopy in a liquid-phase epitaxial nanometer-thick YIG film at millikelvin temperatures. JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 133(14), p. 1 - 8, doi: 10.1063/5.0137437; FULL TEXT
  (RAITH, RIE-FLUORINE, SCIA, BRILLOUIN, EVAPORATOR, VNA-MPI)
• BRODSKÝ, J.; GABLECH, I.; MIGLIACCIO, L.; HAVLÍČEK, M.; DONAHUE, M.; GLOWACKI, E., 2023: Downsizing the Channel Length of Vertical Organic Electrochemical Transistors. ACS APPL MATER INTER 15(22), p. 27002 - 8, doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c02049; FULL TEXT
  (SUSS-MA8, EVAPORATOR, SCIA, PARYLENE-SCS, RIE-FLUORINE, MIRA-EBL, DEKTAK, ICON-SPM)
• Idesová, B., 2023: Design and fabrication of dielectric metasurfaces for ultraviolet wavelengths. MASTER´S THESIS , p. 1 - 71; FULL TEXT
  (EVAPORATOR, ALD-FIJI, RAITH, NANOCALC, SCIA)

• Chmela, O., 2020: Progress toward the development of single nanowire-based arrays for gas sensing applications. PH.D THESIS , p. 1 - 199
  (ALD-FIJI, DWL, KAUFMAN, DIENER, SUSS-MA8, SUSS-RCD8, RAITH, MAGNETRON, EVAPORATOR, RIE-FLUORINE, SCIA, DEKTAK, NANOCALC, MPS150, WIRE-BONDER, ICON-SPM)
• Brodský, J., 2019: Characterization of graphene elecrical properties on MEMS structures. BACHELOR´S THESIS , p. 1 - 50
  (MPS150, WITEC-RAMAN, EVAPORATOR, DRIE, PECVD, DWL, SUSS-MA8, RIE-FLUORINE, RIE-CHLORINE, DIENER, SCIA)
• CHMELA, O.; SADÍLEK, J.; SAMA, DOMENECH-GIL, G.; J.; SOMER, J.; MOHAN, R.; ROMANO-RODRIGUEZ, A.; HUBÁLEK, J.; VALLEJOS VARGAS, S., 2018: Selectively arranged single-wire based nanosensor array systems for gas monitoring. NANOSCALE 10(19), p. 9087 - 10, doi: 10.1039/c8nr01588k; FULL TEXT
  (RAITH, DWL, KAUFMAN, MAGNETRON, SCIA, RIE-FLUORINE, WIRE-BONDER, RIGAKU3)
• PODEŠVA, P.; GABLECH, I.; NEUŽIL, P., 2018: Nanostructured Gold Microelectrode Array for Ultrasensitive Detection of Heavy Metal Contamination. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 90(2), p. 1161 - 7, doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b0372; FULL TEXT
  (SUSS-MA8, DWL, SCIA, DIENER)
• Pekárek, J.; Prokop, R.; Svatoš, V.; Gablech, I.; Hubálek, J.; Neužil, P., 2017: Self-compensating method for bolometer–based IR focal plane arrays. SENSORS AND ACTUATORS, A: PHYSICAL 265, p. 40 - 46, doi: 10.1016/j.sna.2017.08.025
  (SUSS-MA8, EVAPORATOR, RIE-FLUORINE, SUMMIT, SCIA)
• Chmela, O; Sadilek, J; Sama, J; Romano-Rodriguez, A; Hubalek, J; Vallejos, S, 2017: Nanosensor array systems based on single functional wires selectively integrated and their sensing properties to C2H6O and NO2. NANOTECHNOLOGY VIII 10248, doi: 10.1117/12.2265000
  (RAITH, DWL, KAUFMAN, SCIA, RIE-FLUORINE, MAGNETRON, RIGAKU3)