Hi So today I finally got access to the Cirie200 metal dry etcher. I was running my test sample for measuring the nickel etch rate, when I noticed, that it wasn't etching at all and that the Cl2 flow rate was totally off in respect to the recipe, and the Cirie200 was giving me errors. I consulted with the technician who admitted to me, that the Main Flow Control (MFC) had broken a while ago but they didn't replace it, because apparently no one was noticing, that they were not etching according to the recipe, but had in fact random Aluminum etch rates, basically, because of random variation of the Cl2 flow... -.-'

Anyway... Now he has to purge the entire Cl2 line with N2 and then he can replace the main flow control for the Cl2, so that I've got the proper Cl2+Argon mix for dry etching the Nickel.

I also isolated the issue, why I haven't managed to produce switching transistors until now.

And mia culpa, I right now wanna beat myself... really hard into the face.

The Titanium etched nice. But when you only sputter 100nm aluminum and wet etch it without the Titanium coverage, you see, that it's over etching the exact same way, as Nickel does with the wet etching.

So, as soon as Bao gets the valve fixed interconnect to the devices should actually work quiet fine.

Cheers -lev