This presentation overviews a few characteristics of high frequency magneto
plasma sources that have been designed for applications to etching of thin
films. The present needs in terms of etching performances are presented as
well as a brief description of some of these plasma sources. A few etching
process that have been succeeding with these sources are presented. From th
ese results, we conclude that all these sources have their figure of merit
and that all of them can be designed so as to provide similar etching chara
cteristics.