Biennial Report 2016/2017

Reactive ion beam etching facility for
substrates with 450 mm diameter
Reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) is a
sophisticated technology enabling the fabrication of
e.g. optical elements with sub-atomic precision. Within
the extended research infrastructure a new state-ofthe-art
RIBE facility was realized. The integrated 5
axis-motion system enables now uniform etching of
large workpieces with diameters up to 450 mm and a
maximum weight of 50 kg. The RIBE system is
equipped with a Kaufman-type ion source, configured
for Fluorine-containing etching gases, and can be
upgraded with different optical and masspectroscopic in-situ measurement technologies which
guarantee high process stability and reliability. With the RIBE 450 etching plant, newly developed
IOM etching processes for ultraprecise and innovative structured functional surfaces can be further
scaled up to industrially relevant sizes.
NIR Laser workstation
Laser microprocessing of bulk materials and thin
films is a key technology for future industrial production
processes. The new NIR laser workstation for micro
material processing is equipped with two laser sources
addressing the question of perfect wavelength and
optimized pulse duration for specific laser material
interactions processes. Nanosecond pulses of near
infrared (NIR) laser radation of 1.55 µm wavelength
allows a optimized penetration into semiconductor
materials in order to study for instance interface-related
interaction mechanisms. The pulse-shape-adjustable laser (λ = 1.06 µm) enables the optimization of
thermally driven laser processes. In addition to new physical capabilities the workstation allows
researchers to study processes at almost industrial conditions due to the build-in fast scanner and
stage technologies enabling processing speeds up to 20 m/s.