LASER RIE PROCESS FOR ETCHING OF ORGANIC MATERIALS.

Reactive ion etching (RIE) can be used to remove organic materials, such as polyimide and photoresist. In this process, a plasma discharge is induced in a low pressure gas to produce highly reactive species, which etch the organic material. An example is a mixture of CF//4 and oxygen, which is used to etch polyimide. In order to replace the expensive plasma etching systems used for RIE processing, a CO//2 laser is used to induce a plasma discharge in a mixture of oxygen and a fluorine- or chlorine-containing gas.