The development of anisotropic etching process for (Pb,Sr)TiO3 (PST) thin films is an important task to provide a small feature size and an accurate pattern transfer. Etching characteristics of PST thin film were investigated using inductively coupled plasma etching system as functions of Cl-2/Ar gas mixing ratio. The PST etch rate increased with the increase of chlorine radical and ion energy intensity. It was found that the increasing of Ar content in gas mixture lead to sufficient increasing of etch rate. The maximum etch rate of PST film is 56.2 nm/min at Cl-2/(Cl-2+Ar) of 0.2. It was proposed that the sputter etching is a dominant etching mechanism while the contribution of chemical reaction is relatively low. due to low volatility of etching products. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.