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The APS, designed originally for deep etching of silicon dioxide, also proved to offer significant improvements compared to conventional RIE and ICP processing, for a wider range of materials such as lithium niobate, silicon carbide, and quartz.

Introduced at the end of 1999, as the Advanced Oxide Etch (AOE^TM) system, the APS is a revolutionary design based on STS' well-established Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) technology. The APS has a unique helical antenna arrangement.

A particular advantage of the design is that the dielectric window through which RF power is coupled from the antenna into the plasma is carefully shaped to maximise the coupling of power. This offers higher etch rates for materials which are difficult to etch with conventional ICP coil arrangements.

The process chamber is of metallic construction and is heated to reduce the level of deposition on it, thereby increasing process stability and increasing the mean time between cleans by more than a factor of 10.

The process chamber incorporates a �magnetic bucket� formed by small permanent magnets to improve plasma confinement which further increases the plasma density above the wafer and also hinders undesirable deposition inside the chamber.

Last modified 01/09/2010 04:46:13