Etching of InGaAs and InP in inductively coupled plasma (ICP) using SiCl4 was studied for heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) applications. Low sample temperature was used to minimize etching isotropy and to reduce group V element desorption. The low ion energy etching process results in a damaged layer thickness of a few Angstrom. Auger electron spectroscopy results on InP demonstrate a very thin layer of nonstoichiometric material. The nature of the etching mask impacts the surface contamination: local contamination effects due to sputtering are observed. For such low ion energy process, the sample preparation before ICP etching is shown to be very important for surface roughness, as observed by atomic force microscopy. Various preparation schemes have been investigated, before ICP etching, for reduction of the surface degradation resulting from ICP etching. It is shown that the best results in terms of roughness and etch-rate are obtained with a silicon nitride mask and surface oxidation by ultraviolet ozonization before a wet desoxidation immediately preceding the ICP etching. An ICP process was used successfully for partly etching the base mesa of HBT structures. No significant difference with wet etching was observed in terms of induced damage and HBT current gain.