MICROTECH has developed a complete
microlithographic process for cylindrical surfaces. Such a process is suited
for the fabrication of thin film coils, line arrays or generic patterns
on the side surface of a cylinder, through the following steps:
- Surface cleaning and polishing to optical quality
- Coating with metal or dielectric thin film
- Coating with resist
- Laser writing of the pattern
- Resist processing
- Wet etching
- Plating
Patterning resolution down to 5 micrometers can be
achieved, including the plating process. Steps 3, 4 and 7 are very dependent on the
special shape of the substrate and can be accomplished through specific
equipement available from MICROTECH:
Resist deposition system. This special equipement allow
the deposition of a thin and uniform resist layer on cylindrical surfaces. A resist
thickness in the 1 to 5 micron range can be programmed. The substrate diameter can
range between 1 and 100 mm.
3-D Laser pattern generator. By combining precision
substrate rotation and raster laser exposure, a conductive or dielectric
discretionary pattern can be obtained. MICROTECH has already applied this technique
in the following cases:
- fabrication of superconducting coils on niobium-coated
quartz cylinders, for gravitational wave detectors
- LN2 cooled chip carriers for infrared detector arrays
- fabrication of thin-film toroidal coils for current sensing
applications
- fabrication of large diameter coils on copper-coated silica
or anodised aluminum, for reprographic applications
See details of the example above in our 3-D
lithography picture gallery.
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