PACE, a dry etch, ultra-high speed, precision machining and polishing process for micro/macroscopic features w/o subsurface damage

Summary form only given. A non-incremental improvement in the fabrication of integrated micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) devices can be expected from plasma assisted chemical etching (PACE) because it is an extremely fast (0.1 mm/min or /spl sim/10/sup 3/ faster than RIE) and precise (/spl sim/1% or /spl sim/10 times more repeatable) dry etch process with the ability to shape and polish both microscopic and macroscopic features (/spl sim/0.1 micron to >1 cm) without subsurface damage. For example, PACE offers precision machining of large area arbitrarily aspheric surfaces, and in the same process, microstructures with the small feature sizes required for sensors, microelectronic devices, monolithic packages for microwave circuits and antennas, optical gratings and detector arrays over these areas.