The excellent anisotropy of the reactive Ion BeM eTCHING(RIBE) process, its fairly high etch rate and the perfectly smooth etched surface have made it a desirable tool for III-V eletronic and optoeletronic device fabrication. The properties of a microwave excited ion source have been examined, the influence of the various parameters and the etch affect of various gases in Chemical Assisted Ion Beam Etching(CAIBE) have been studied. Application to the fabrication of lasers have demostrated that the initial reluctance to accept such a process for semiconductor device etching was not justified.
