Sidewall Angle

Definition

The angle of a patterned feature’s sidewall relative to a stated reference plane; with the wafer-surface plane as the reference, a vertical sidewall is 90°.

Application

Used to quantify etch-profile taper and compare process conditions when controlling semiconductor feature shape.

Related concepts

• Etch Profile
• Anisotropic Etch
• Sidewall Passivation
• Critical Dimension Metrology

Evidence and further reading

• Evidence from pages.nist.govhttps://pages.nist.gov/SCATMECH/docs/grating.htm
• Evidence from ctcms.nist.govhttps://www.ctcms.nist.gov/~davydov/12Para_GaN%20pillars_JVST.pdf