In this review article, various aspects of plasma etching for very large sc
ale integrated (VLSI) circuit technology are presented. The motivation for
using plasma etching and the advantages of this dry etching technique over
wet etching are discussed. Principal reactor designs are described and key
VLSI materials involved in etching are highlighted. Applications for patter
n definition of gate electrodes, contacts, vias, and metallic interconnects
are presented. Emphasis is placed on etching rates, uniformity, anisotropy
, selectivity, and critical dimension control. The potentially damaging eff
ects of plasma processing on gate oxide are also briefly reviewed.