Dry etching process and apparatus.

摘要

An etching apparatus comprises means (61) to generate metastable excited species such as of nitrogen or rare gas molecules, means to transfer the metastable excited species into a reaction chamber (53) in which a substrate (55) to-be-etched is set, and means (56) to introduce a reactive gas for etching into the reaction chamber (53). The reactive gas is activated by collision between the metastable excited species and the reactive gas so as to etch the substrate (55) owing to a reaction between the activated reactive gas and the substrate (55). Further, a light source (51) for photo-exciting the substrate (55) may well be added.