Plasma etching is a key process in microelectronic device manufacturing that uses reactive gases and radio frequency power to chemically etch materials in an anisotropic manner. It offers advantages over wet etching such as better control, reproducibility, selectivity, and ability to produce vertical sidewalls. While more expensive than wet etching, plasma etching became widely adopted in the 1970s and enabled the manufacturing of smaller features needed for advancing microelectronics technology.