Handbook of Silicon Based MEMS Materials and Technologies

10.6. A Survey of Etching Simulators

The following is a list of various commercial and noncommercial simulators for modeling anisotropic etching, listed in alphabetical order. Table 10.1 compares the major features offered by the simulators. This includes the type of simulator (geometric or atomistic), the supported substrates (Si, GaAS, etc.), wafer orientations (e.g., Si{100}, Si{110}, etc.), etching conditions (anisotropic and isotropic etchants, concentrations and temperatures), mask layout tools, support for multiple masking and etching processes (simultaneous use of different masking materials, sequential patterning with different masks, sequential processing by wet and dry techniques, etc.), support for RIE/DRIE, visualization tools, ...