Physics / mechanism
Competitive landscape
Wet etch (HF, KOH, TMAH) is cheaper but isotropic—unsuitable for sub-10 nm critical dimensions. Laser ablation handles thick-film removal or singulation but lacks selectivity. Ion-beam etch (IBE/CAIBE) offers angstrom control for photonics facets and MEMS but throughput is too low for front-end logic. The key competitive axis is selectivity vs. throughput vs. damage budget.
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.