Rca Inc.

Roland W Widmer

Hans W Lehmann

Michael T Gale

Klaus Frick

An improved sputter etching apparatus for etching a substrate with a reactive gas. The improvement in the apparatus comprises utilizing a cryogenic pump as the vacuum means to evacuate the plasma chamber. The improved apparatus of the invention is particularly useful for the reactive sputter etching of aluminum substrates utilizing a highly reactive gas such as boron trichloride.

Reactive sputter etching of aluminum

Superposed fine-detail multi-level patterns (e.g., superposed diffraction gratings having specified line spacing dimensions less than 10 micrometers and specified depth dimensions less than 5 micrometers) can be fabricated by linearly adding (e.g., by evaporation) an additional two-level pattern to an existent multi-level pattern or, alternatively, by linearly subtracting (e.g., by sputter or plasma etching) an additional two-level pattern to an existent multi-level pattern.

Color diffractive subtractive filter master recording comprising a

Superposed multi-level diffraction gratings in photoresist can be etched into a substrate by using the photoresist as a masking pattern and by sputtering in a reactive fluoromethane plasma to a predetermined depth.

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Rumland, Switzerland

Roland W Widmer