Showing papers on "X-ray lithography published in 2018"

Convex blazed grating of high diffraction efficiency fabricated by swing ion-beam etching method.

Abstract: A swing ion-beam etching method to fabricate convex blazed gratings used in shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging spectrometers is presented. This method solves the consistency problem of blaze angles by swing etching through the meridian direction of the gratings. The mathematical relationship of the curvature, aperture, and diffraction efficiency of convex gratings is studied to demonstrate the limitation of conventional translational lithography and the necessity of swing etching. A geometric model is built to analyze the influence of swinging speed and beam slit width on groove evolution. Convex gratings with a 45.5 gr/mm groove density, 67 mm aperture, 156.88 mm radius of curvature, and 2.2° blaze angle have been fabricated and measured where the peak and average diffraction efficiency in the shortwave infrared band reach 90% and 70%, respectively. Experimental results validate that high-efficiency convex gratings of small blaze angle and high groove consistency can be produced by swing etching, which satisfy the requirements for high spectral resolution and miniaturization of imaging spectrometers.

Fabrication of Polymer Microstructures of Various Angles via Synchrotron X-Ray Lithography Using Simple Dimensional Transformation.

Abstract: In this paper, we developed a method of fabricating polymer microstructures at various angles on a single substrate via synchrotron X-ray lithography coupled with simple dimensional transformations. Earlier efforts to create various three-dimensional (3D) features on flat substrates focused on the exposure technology, material properties, and light sources. A few research groups have sought to create microstructures on curved substrates. We created tilted microstructures of various angles by simply deforming the substrate from 3D to two-dimensional (2D). The microstructural inclination angles changed depending on the angles of the support at particular positions. We used convex, concave, and S-shaped supports to fabricate microstructures with high aspect ratios (1:11) and high inclination angles (to 79°). The method is simple and can be extended to various 3D microstructural applications; for example, the fabrication of microarrays for optical components, and tilted micro/nanochannels for biological applications.

Maskless X-Ray Lithography Based on Microoptical Electromechanical Systems and Microfocus X-Ray Tubes

Abstract: The main advantages and problems of maskless X-ray lithography (MXRL) are discussed. Consideration is given to two concepts of lithography in which the chip of a microoptical electromechanical system (MOEMS) of micromirrors and a microfocus X-ray tube chip with a “breakthrough” thin-film target are used as dynamic masks. Each of them can occupy its own niche in a research area or in the mass production of microchips. A description of the project of a MXRL facility (demonstrator of technologies), which is based on the concept of MOEMS, developed at the Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, is presented for the first time.

Polymer-based X-ray masks patterned by direct laser writing

Abstract: X-ray masks are indispensable tools in deep X-ray lithography (XRL). To date, hardly any fabrication technology can provide affordable and readily available masks with good structure quality. The bottleneck of adequate masks to a large extent limits the widespread use of XRL. In this article, an alternative XRL mask fabrication process is described to significantly improve availability and cost efficiency of XRL masks as key instruments in XRL processing: A 355 nm UV-laser is applied to expose SU-8 resist on an antireflective coating and a copper sacrificial substrate. The voids in this resist template are filled by a two-step electroplating process with sacrificial nickel and 3.6 μm thick gold absorbers. A second SU-8 coat embeds the absorbers, forming the 40 μm mask membrane. This configuration allows for XRL into resists of up to about 200 μm thickness at the SyLMAND beamline, Canada. The absorber structure accuracy is about 1 μm, at smallest tested lateral dimensions of 2 μm isolated features and 500 nm details. Upon release from the substrate, the membrane locally deforms by up to 1.79 μm. PMMA microstructures patterned with such a mask have smooth and vertical sidewalls. The SyLMAND chopper allows one to limit thermal deformations during exposure to the micrometer range: At a beam power of 0.42 W, typical thermal deformations are 0.5 μm-1.4 μm, depending on the layout, and position inaccuracies are about 3.3 μm.

Micro-lens aperture array for enhanced thin-film imaging using luminescent concentrators

Abstract: We present a 300 μm thick optical Soller collimator realized by X-ray lithography on a PMMA wafer which, when paired with luminescent concentrator films, forms the first complete prototype of a short-distance, flexible, scalable imaging system that is less than 1 mm thick. We describe two ways of increasing the light-gathering ability of the collimator by using hexagonal aperture cells and embedded micro-lenses, evaluate a new micro-lens aperture array (MLAA) for proof of concept, and analyze the optical imaging properties of flexible MLAAs when realized as thin films.

Characterization of the surface contamination of deep X-ray lithography mirrors exposed to synchrotron radiation.

Abstract: In deep X-ray lithography (DXRL), synchrotron radiation is applied to pattern polymer microstructures. At the Synchrotron Laboratory for Micro and Nano Devices (SyLMAND), Canadian Light Source, a chromium-coated grazing-incidence X-ray double-mirror system is applied as a tunable low-pass filter. In a systematic study, the surface conditions of the two mirrors are analyzed to determine the mirror reflectivity for DXRL process optimization, without the need for spectral analysis or surface probing: PMMA resist foils were homogeneously exposed and developed to determine development rates for mirror angles between 6 mrad and 12 mrad as well as for white light in the absence of the mirrors. Development rates cover almost five orders of magnitude for nominal exposure dose (deposited energy per volume) values of 1 kJ cm-3 to 6 kJ cm-3. The rates vary from case to case, indicating that the actual mirror reflectivity deviates from that of clean chromium assumed for the experiments. Fitting the mirror-based development rates to the white-light case as a reference, reflectivity correction factors are identified, and verified by experimental and numerical results of beam calorimetry. The correction factors are related to possible combinations of a varied chromium density, chromium oxidation and a carbon contamination layer. The best fit for all angles is obtained assuming 7.19 g cm-3 nominal chromium density, 0.5 nm roughness for all involved layers, and an oxide layer thickness of 25 nm with a carbon top coat of 50 nm to 100 nm. A simulation tool for DXRL exposure parameters was developed to verify that the development rates for all cases do coincide within a small error margin (achieving a reduction of the observed errors by more than two orders of magnitude) if the identified mirror surface conditions are considered when calculating the exposure dose.

Chemical and Molecular Variations in Commercial Epoxide Photoresists for X-ray Lithography

Abstract: The quality of high aspect ratio microstructures fabricated by deep X-ray lithography is highly dependent on the photoresist material used and the process parameters applied. Even with photoresists more suitable to this process, it is common to face defects in the final optical components, such as in case of X-ray gratings. The gratings need to be fabricated with critical dimensions on a sub-micrometer and micrometer scale, with periods of few micrometers and heights of hundreds of micrometers to be used in X-ray imaging techniques such as Talbot–Lau Interferometry. During the fabrication process, these features lead to challenges such as mechanical stability, homogeneity, and defect-free grating patterns. Usually, an epoxy-based negative photoresist is used in X-ray lithography, which needs to account for the shrinkage that takes place during polymer crosslinking in order to avoid defects in the final pattern. Nowadays, photoresist material still lacks certain suitable properties (chemical and mechanical) to fabricate gratings of high quality and with acceptable reproducibility. This work presents the results of TGA, FTIR, and MALDI-TOF analysis made on photoresists commercially available and suitable for X-ray lithography. The photoresists presented different profiles regarding the solvent content and oligomers composition, and in the case of some samples, there were high amounts of non-epoxidized oligomers.

Fabrication of absorption gratings with X-ray lithography for X-ray phase contrast imaging

Abstract: Grating-based X-ray phase contrast imaging is promising especially in the medical area. Two or three gratings are involved in grating-based X-ray phase contrast imaging in which the absorption grat...

Light-sheet based lithography technique for patterning an array of microfluidic channels.

Abstract: We propose a Light-sheet laser interference lithography technique for fabricating periodic microfluidic channels. This technique uses multiple light-sheet illumination pattern that is generated using a spatial filter at the back-aperture of the cylindrical lens. Specially designed spatial filter is used that give rise to a periodic pattern at the focal plane which is essentially a 1D Fourier transform of the spatial filter transfer function. One-dimensional focusing property of the cylindrical lens result in the generation of line shaped channel geometry. To design microfluidic channels, the illumination pattern is exposed to the glass substrate coated with a photopolymer sensitized to 532 nm and subsequently developed using standard chemical protocols. Experimentally, the 1D periodic channel structure has an approximate width and periodicity of approximately 11.25 microns. Light-sheets based lithography technique offer a fast and single-shot process to generate microfluidic channels.