Diamond Etching Beyond 10 μm with Near-Zero Micromasking

To exploit the exceptional properties of diamond, new high quality fabrication techniques are needed to produce high performing devices. Etching and patterning diamond to depths beyond one micron has proven challenging due to the hardness and chemical resistance of diamond. A new cyclic Ar/O(2) - Ar/Cl(2) ICP RIE process has been developed to address micromasking issues from the aluminium mask by optimising the proportion of O(2) in the plasma and introducing a preferential “cleaning” step. High quality smooth features up to, but not limited to, 10.6 μm were produced with an average etched surface roughness of 0.47 nm at a diamond etch rate of 45 nm/min and 16.9:1 selectivity.