Mike Yoo | Verticle Inc: How much does plasma etching *really* damage a microLED, and how can you prove it?

What if you could make wet etching perfectly vertical, eliminating undercuts?

A fundamental challenge in microLED fabrication is achieving high pixel density, which requires shrinking the chip size and the "kerf" (the street or gap) between the chips. This clip addresses the primary limitation of conventional wet etching: its isotropic nature, which etches sideways as much as it etches down, creating an "undercut" that prevents the formation of small, well-defined pixels. This is why the industry has relied on anisotropic dry plasma etching, despite its damaging effects.

The core breakthrough presented here is a proprietary wet etching recipe that achieves a highly anisotropic, almost perfectly vertical etch profile in AlGaInP materials. The SEM images shown are compelling, displaying clean, sharp sidewalls with no visible undercut, a feat that is extremely difficult to achieve with a chemical process. This controlled profile is the key enabler for both chip miniaturization and kerf reduction.

The commercial implications of this technical achievement are massive. By controlling the etch profile, Verticle can not only shrink the microLEDs to below 10 microns and eventually to 1-2 microns, but they can also drastically reduce the kerf width. The speaker provides a powerful example: reducing the kerf from 10 microns to just 2 microns increases the number of dies per wafer (DPW) by 3.7 times, effectively cutting the chip cost to a quarter of its original price.

In this short video, you can learn:
* Why traditional isotropic wet etching is unsuitable for high-density microLEDs.
* How a proprietary process can achieve anisotropic, vertical sidewalls using wet chemistry.
* The direct link between reducing kerf width and dramatically increasing dies-per-wafer (DPW) to lower costs.
📋 **Clip Abstract** This clip reveals a breakthrough wet etching process that overcomes the typical isotropic nature to produce highly vertical, undercut-free sidewalls. This enables aggressive microLED shrinking and narrower kerf widths, leading to a 3.7x increase in dies per wafer and a significant cost reduction.
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Can you fabricate microLEDs without expensive plasma etchers and ALD machines?

This clip outlines the significant manufacturing and cost advantages of using a simplified wet etching process over the conventional dry etch workflow. The speaker emphasizes the simplicity and robustness of their technology, positioning it as ideal for mass production. A key feature is that the single etching solution works on any combination of phosphide-based alloys (e.g., AlGaInP), enabling a one-step mesa etch without requiring multiple, complex photolithography and etching cycles for different layers.

The most significant advantage is the elimination of costly process steps and capital equipment. Because the wet etch process is inherently defect-free, it completely removes the need for post-etch recovery treatments. This means manufacturers can avoid purchasing and maintaining extremely expensive and complex tools like Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) etchers for the mesa formation and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems for sidewall passivation, which are typically required to mitigate plasma damage.

By replacing a multi-step, high-CapEx process with a simple, low-cost wet bench tool, the entire manufacturing flow is streamlined. The speaker states this can reduce the number of process steps by nearly two-thirds compared to a typical dry etch flow. This simplification not only drastically reduces equipment and operational costs but also has the potential to improve overall manufacturing yield and throughput.

In this short video, you can learn:
* How a one-step wet etch can simplify the fabrication of complex AlGaInP epi-structures.
* Why a damage-free etch eliminates the need for post-etch recovery and passivation steps.
* The significant cost savings achieved by avoiding high-CapEx tools like ICP-RIE and ALD systems.
📋 **Clip Abstract** Discover the manufacturing advantages of a novel wet etch technology for microLEDs. This simple, one-step process eliminates the need for expensive plasma etching (ICP-RIE) and passivation (ALD) equipment, reducing process steps by two-thirds and dramatically lowering capital expenditure.
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