Lithography

Structure generation by UV-Light

Photolithography, also called optical lithography or UV lithography, is a process used in microfabrication to pattern parts on a thin film or the bulk of a substrate. It typically uses UV light to transfer a geometric pattern from a photomask to a light-sensitive chemical photoresist on the substrate.

Photolithography

microfab´s Photolithography department is located in a class ISO 4 clean room cell.

The processing of the following substrate sizes is possible:

  • 100mm / round
  • 150mm / round
  • 4 inch / round
  • 6 inch / round
  • 100mm / square
  • 4 inch / square

Several Automatic Cluster Systems and semi-automated spin-coaters and developers for Lithography Processes are available.

Various mask aligners for alignment & exposure are available. Backside alignment with ± 2 µm overlay accuracy is possible.

The maximum resolution of 0.8 µm lines/spaces is achieved with thin positive resist. Thick positive resist, often used for microform applications, with thicknesses up to 100 µm, are also available.

All layouts are on 5- or 7-inch chrome-on-glass masks.

Furthermore, a direct-write photolithography machine is available with the following main key features:

  • 149mm x 149mm maximum writing area
  • 155mm x 155mm x 7mm maximum wafer size
  • 1µm and 5µm minimum feature sizes (depending on the configuration) across full writing area

Standard Litho Processes

The following standard processes are available at microfab:

possitive thin resist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
AZ1518 1,5 µm – 3 µm 1,8 µm
AZ ECI 3027 2,0 µm – 5 µm 2,7 µm
positive thick resist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
AZ10XT 5,0 µm – 20,0 µm 10,0 µm
AZ40XT 15,0 µm – 100 µm 30,0 µm
AZ4562 4,5 µm – 10 µm 6,8 µm
negativ resist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
AZ nLof2070 5,0 µm – 10,0 µm 7,0 µm
“image reversal” resist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
AZ5214E 1,0 µm – 2,0 µm 1,4 µm
two-layer-bottomresist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
AR-BR5460 0,8 µm – 2,0 µm 1,2 µm
epoxy  based  photoresist
Typ resist film thickness STD film thickness
SU-8 3025 20,0 µm – 65,0 µm 25,0 µm