High quality mechanical etching of brittle materials by powder blasting

The old technique of sandblasting has recently been developed into a versatile etching technique for brittle materials, capable of producing structures larger than 100 mu m. The paper introduces the technique and discusses the mechanism behind the process on the base of theoretical models. The characteristics of patterned etching are illustrated by the evolution of trench-like structures and by the wear of mask patterns, while also some technological aspects will be addressed. With both experimental results and theoretical considerations, it will present the versatility of powder blasting as well-controllable etching process for a wide range of brittle materials. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.