Transene Company offers nickel etchants specifically for plated (Nickel
Etchant TFG) and evaporated (Nickel Etch TFB) nickel films.  It is possible
that the Alfa Aesar etchant was tailored toward a different purity of
nickel, resulting in the black coating.

Please visit our website, www.transene.com, or contact me directly for more
information.

Regards,

Christopher Christuk
Transene Company
Tel:  978 777 7860
email:  christopher@transene.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "abhijat goyal" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 10:22 AM
Subject: [mems-talk] Ni etching


> Hi,
>
>  I am trying to etch (strip) nickel that was used as a mask for ICP RIE
> etching of substrates using Ar and SF(6) over extended periods of time
> (more than 2 hours). The Nickel has turned black and also is not etching
> using a commercial Ni etch solution that I bought from Alfa Aesar. Did
> anybody had the same problem earlier? I will appreciate if someone could
> provide some suggestions or solutions to the problem.
>
> Abhijat
>
> EE MEMS Group
> Department of Electrical Engineering,
> Penn State Univ.
>
>