The plasma‐assisted etching of aluminum in chlorine containing RF glow discharges has been studied. Use of a single parallel plate reactor permitted a direct comparison of etch results between , , , and . Separation of aluminum etching into native oxide reduction and water vapor/oxygen scavenging, and metal film etching allowed the likely rate‐limiting processes in the etch cycle to be ascertained for the different etch gases. The longer initiation period observed with and compared to appeared to be due to etch gas dissociation effects. Metal etching was believed to be limited by the removal of and residues with and and by etchant generation with .