Xenon Difluoride Etching System (XEF2)

• Subject Area: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• Term: Funded in 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 568740890

The xenon difluoride etching system (XEF2) enables the highly selective etching of silicon against various materials (silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, photoresists, metals, etc.) in a dry and plasma-free process. This makes it particularly suitable for gently producing sensitive self-supporting nano- and micromechanical components. Both damage to the structures during drying and plasma-induced damage are avoided. Typical applications include the under-etching of self-supporting components such as those found in micro- or nanomechanical components, as well as the fabrication of photonic waveguides on silicon substrates. The system is embedded in the Central Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory (ZEITlab) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The ZEITlab is an organizational unit of the School of Computation, Information and Technology (SoCIT). Since 2022, it has been housed in the new TUM Electrical Engineering and Information Technology building on the Garching campus. The center consists of a clean room with an area of 950 m² and associated characterization laboratories. Its vision is to establish a "makerspace for microelectronics prototypes" that supports a wide range of research areas as a broad-based technology center of SoCIT. In the ZEITlab, proof-of-concept demonstrators in the field of electronics and sensor technology are realized on the basis of modern materials and components and made available for various fields of application. This type of "rapid prototyping" uses innovative processing and characterization technologies and is systematically supplemented by circuit design and modelling. ZEITlab provides a central and shared access to micro- and nanofabrication for a large number of research groups working on topics such as quantum and sensor technologies, micro-, opto-, and neuroelectronics, as well as hybrid nanosystems. The bundled infrastructure, therefore, enables an efficient transfer of technologies from basic research to engineering issues and applications.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Xenon Difluoride Etching System
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Markus Becherer