Abstract A modified Langmuir type surface kinetics model was developed in our previous work for interpreting the overall etching behavior of silicon based materials in fluorocarbon discharges using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactors. This kinetics model was tested for the global applicability to the ICP etching, either for the etching of non-silicon-based materials or for the etching in non-fluorocarbon-based discharges. Though this model has some limitations, e.g. not applicable for the etching in which the etch rate decreases with the bias voltage at some higher bias voltages, it successfully describes the behavior of etching of a wide variety of materials in various ICPs. To meet the expectation of the model, the inverse etch rate presented in the literature was fairly linearly dependent on (the bias voltage) −3/2 , which allows to evaluate some kinetics parameters for the ICP etching, and thus to characterize the etch behavior in a quantitative manner.