CHAPTER 5
 SUMMARY

 Gallium arsenide is a valuable semiconductor material used in many applications

including microelectronic devices, optoelectronics, and integrated circuits. The desire to

continuously improve upon the current applications and generate new and innovative

applications necessitates advancements in the processing techniques. One key step in the

processing technique is the development of the features through plasma etching. As the

feature sizes become smaller, precision in the formation of the features becomes more

critical. Chlorine-based plasmas are the most commonly used to dry etch gallium

arsenide wafers during device manufacturing primarily because of the volatility of the

chlorides that are formed by the reaction [14]. Gold has been determined to be relatively

inert during plasma etching and therefore has been used as a mask material when creating

nanostructures, IC circuits, and other microelectronic devices [6,8,9]. There has been

some thought that gold may be used as a catalyst to enhance the etching process. In

oxidation and hydrogenation systems this has been proven true. However, does gold act

as a catalyst in chlorine plasma to enhance the etching of gallium arsenide?

 A sample was prepared with gold stars on a gallium arsenide substrate and then

etched in chlorine/argon plasma. Electron beam lithography was used to create the

template for the star array. Gold was then deposited onto the sample with a metal

evaporator filling the voids created during electron beam lithography to form the gold

stars. The samples were then analyzed for any changes in surface characteristics after