Interferometric lithography (IL) is a powerful technique for the definition of large-area, nanometer-scale, periodically patterned structures. Patterns are recorded in a light-sensitive medium, such as a photoresist, that responds nonlinearly to the intensity distribution associated with the interference of two or more coherent beams of light. The photoresist patterns produced with IL are a pla...

Photolithographic masks are key components in the fabrication process of patterned substrates for various applications. Different patterns generally require different photomasks, whose total cost is high for the multilevel fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures. We developed a photomask that combines two imaging elements—microlens arrays and clear windows—in one structure. Such struct...

This paper reports the experimental approaches to the fabrication of two-layer integrated phase masks and the fabrication of photonic crystal templates using the phase mask based on holographic lithography technique. The photonic crystal template is formed by exposing photoresist mixtures to five-beam interference patterns generated through the phase mask. The fabricated phase mask consists of ...

Semiconductor processing in manufacturing must be fast and highly accurate in the measuring of the surface profile of soft thin films such as photoresist. Since photoresist surface is very smooth and deformable, a device to measure is required that will measure vertical direction with a nanometer resolution in height and not damage the film during the measurement. To do this, we developed an ap...

Near total reflection regime has been widely used in X-ray science, specifically grazing incidence small angle scattering and hard photoelectron spectroscopy. In this work, we introduce some practical aspects of using near ambient pressure spectroscopy apply technique to study chemical concentration gradients a substrate/photoresist system. Experimental data are accompanied by optical photoemis...

An ultrasonic sensor has been developed to monitor photoresist processing in situ during semiconductor manufacturing. Photoresist development, pre-exposure bake, and postexposure bake were monitored for the Shipley 1800 series I-line resists, and the pre-exposure bake of Shipley APEX-E deep-uv (DUV) resist was monitored as well. Development monitoring was achieved by measuring thickness changes...

We report the first synthesis of a photodegradable hyperbranched polyacetal, wherein every repeat unit carries a photo-labile 2-nitrobenzyloxy moiety. The pristine HBP serves as a positive photoresist to create micron-size patterns; furthermore, by changing the terminal groups to dipropargyl acetal, clickable photo-patterned substrates can be generated.

The evolution of integrated circuits into the ultralarge scale integrated regime takes today’s 0.35 mm circuit design rules to even smaller values of 0.18 mm and beyond. As a consequence, photoresist masks are becoming thinner and even more prone to erosion by etching. For this work an I-line novolak resist was used. Etch rates for various process conditions using in situ ellipsometry were obta...

This article presents a new method for fabricating highly conductive gold nanostructures within a polymeric matrix with subwavelength resolution. The nanostructures are directly written in a gold precursor-doped photoresist using a femtosecond pulsed laser. The laser energy is absorbed by a two-photon dye, which induces simultaneous reduction of gold in the precursor and polymerization of the n...

Endeavoring to push the boundaries of microfabrication with shrinkable polymers, we have developed a sequential shrink photolithography process. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by rapidly fabricating plastic microlens arrays. First, we create a mask out of the children's toy Shrinky Dinks by simply printing dots using a standard desktop printer. Upon retraction of this pre-stressed ...