Talk:Industrial etching

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[edit] Copied for possible use here

This is the simplest etching technology. All it requires is a container with a liquid solution that will dissolve the material in question. Unfortunately, there are complications since usually a mask is desired to selectively etch the material. One must find a mask that will not dissolve or at least etches much slower than the material to be patterned. Secondly, some single crystal materials, such as silicon, exhibit anisotropic etching in certain chemicals. Anisotropic etching in contrast to isotropic etching means different etch rates in different directions in the material. The classic example of this is the <111> crystal plane sidewalls that appear when etching a hole in a <100> silicon wafer in a chemical such as potassium hydroxide (KOH). The result is a pyramid shaped hole instead of a hole with rounded sidewalls with an isotropic etchant. The principle of anisotropic and isotropic wet etching is illustrated in the figure below.

--Light current 21:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New disambiguation page - Proposal to revert to previous situation

• User:Smack has taken it upon it himself (20 December 06) to put etching to a new disambiguation page. This was done without any consultation & I think this is a mistake, and the previous situation should be reverted to, for the following reasons:

• there was only one page called etching.
• it implies that what he calls etching (art) is not chemical etching, which is not the case.
• the only other item on the new page, Line art, is a mish-mash of a page & does not mention etching once in the main text, and has very little to do with etching. He describes it as "an improper use" himself.
• there was a perfectly adequate disam notice at the top of the etching article already, pointing to chemical etching:

This page discusses etching in connection with printing and art. For other industrial uses of etching see Chemical etching.

For the history of etching, see old master prints.

In the United States, the term etching is sometimes used improperly to refer to line drawings done in pen and ink and other media.

• this will leave hundreds of "etching" and "etcher" references pointing here, which will take forever to sort out, & cause continuing confusion, hassle, and inefficient linkage.
• there was no proposal to do this.

Please say if you Support or Oppose at the Talk:Etching page, Thanks! Johnbod 21:58, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

1. This page claims to discuss many different applications of etching, but it really only considers etching in semiconductor fabrication.
2. It makes an ostensibly fundamental distinction between isotropic and anisotropic etching. I think that this distinction is overrated. The only fundamental distinction is the type of etchant; anisotropy and all of the other properties are just useful figures of merit.
3. It's so incomplete that I'm tempted to just blank most of it and start from scratch.

--Smack (talk) 00:45, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

• my interest & knowledge is only the art side, but just looking at the article here I had realized your points 1 & 3. I also don't like that it implies art etching is somehow not chemical. There seem to be a number of more detailed articles, so it might be better to junk the whole text as it stands & have a disam page for "etching(industrial)" or similar Johnbod 00:52, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I propose to move this article to Industrial etching or Etching (industry). --Smack (talk) 18:56, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I've brought this article up to tolerable standards as far as microfabrication is concerned, by removing some glaring errors and linking to the new Etching (microfabrication) article. However, it's still incomplete, the introduction is marginal, and I can't vouch for the bits that refer to history and copper. --Smack (talk) 19:32, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Industrial etching would be better, although it still seems to me to almost entirely duplicate the microfabrication artivcle - if there is a difference it needs to be made much clearer Johnbod 02:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure that there are industrial applications of etching that differ greatly from the uses in microfabrication, but the only one that I can think of off the top of my head is the manufacture of printed circuit boards. The article will be a stub until someone expands it. --Smack (talk) 18:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)