Editing Dry etching (section)

{{short description|Controlled material removal, without the use of liquid substances}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2016}}
'''Dry etching''' refers to the removal of material, typically a masked pattern of [[semiconductor]] material, by exposing the material to a bombardment of [[ions]] (usually a [[plasma (physics)|plasma]] of reactive gases such as [[fluorocarbons]], [[oxygen]], [[chlorine]], [[boron trichloride]]; sometimes with addition of [[nitrogen]], [[argon]], [[helium]] and other gases) that dislodge portions of the material from the exposed surface.  A common type of dry etching is [[reactive-ion etching]]. Unlike with many (but not all, see [[isotropic etching]]) of the wet chemical etchants used in [[Etching (microfabrication)|wet etching]], the dry etching process typically etches directionally or anisotropically.