Applied Diamond’s in-house capability to dry-etch diamond via RIE/ICP etching opens up new possibilities for solving problems with diamond.  This type of etching is useful in the controlled removal of diamond both in depth and, with the use of masks, in area.  Many structures that we previously were not able to create are now a possibility.  Possibilities include:

Make Thinner Diamond Membranes

Applied Diamond, with its world-class diamond polishing capabilities, can make diamond plates as thin as 20 μm before mounting techniques start to fail and the rigors of this mechanical process start to damage the plate.  With our new dry etching process, the new thickness limit is now 1 μm.  Membranes can be supplied free-standing or created with a frame to ease handling.

Remove Sub-surface Damage

Traditional abrasive processes create a damaged surface, sometime as deep as 10X the abrasive size for brittle materials.  This damage:

• Acts as nuclei for defects when growing homoepitaxial diamond on diamond substrates.
• Provides electron trapping sites when using diamond in electronic or detector applications.
• Interferes with Bragg reflection in x-ray monochromators
• Negatively affects coherence during x-ray transmission
• Adds to scattering in near-field optical microscopy

Use Applied Diamond’s dry etching process to remove this defective layer and improve the quality of your experimental results.

Fabricate 3D Diamond Structures

With the use of lithography and suitable mask materials, it is possible to create 3D structures in diamond.  Use our dry etching process for fabricating micromechanical parts, targets with variable thickness, x-ray diffractive optics and opto-mechanical devices.  Remove unwanted diamond from selected areas of your devices.  Build ledges, depressions, chamfers or other features for mounting and supporting your diamond parts.

Dry etching is just one more process Applied Diamond can use to make your designs a reality.