To efficiently eliminate the surface defects and subsurface damage layer of synthetic quartz introduced by grinding, a plasma-based isotropic etching polishing (plasma-IEP) technique is proposed in this study. The smoothing of synthetic quartz by plasma-IEP is attributed to the formation, overlapping and merging of numerous and ultra-smooth etch pits formed by isotropic etching of SiO₂ using inductively coupled plasma. Plasma diagnostics have revealed the existence of large amounts of etching radicals. The input radio frequency power and CF₄ flow rate have been proved to be the two determinant factors of the material removal rate (MRR) of plasma-IEP. Under the optimized conditions, a maximum MRR of 5.62 μm/min of a 2-inch wafer has been achieved which is much higher than that of the conventional CMP process. After plasma-IEP for 30 min, the Sa roughness of the ground synthetic quartz decreases from 270.6 nm to 17.4 nm and the inner surface of the isotropic etch pits is smooth at the atomic level. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that plasma-IEP is a promising approach for the highly efficient and damage-free semi-finishing of synthetic quartz.

为了有效消除通过研磨引入的合成石英的表面缺陷和亚表面损伤层，本研究提出了一种基于等离子体的各向同性蚀刻抛光（plasma-IEP）技术。通过等离子体IEP对合成石英进行的平滑归因于通过使用感应耦合等离子体对SiO ₂进行各向同性蚀刻而形成的大量且超光滑的蚀刻坑的形成，重叠和合并。等离子体诊断表明存在大量的蚀刻自由基。输入射频功率和CF ₄流速已被证明是等离子体IEP的材料去除率（MRR）的两个决定性因素。在优化的条件下，已经实现了2英寸晶圆的最大MRR为5.62μm/ min，这比常规CMP工艺要高得多。后等离子体IEP 30分钟，所述š地面合成石英的粗糙度从270.6纳米至17.4纳米和各向同性蚀坑的内表面减小是平滑在原子水平上。本文介绍的结果表明，等离子体IEP是一种高效且无损伤的合成石英半成品的有前途的方法。