Photolithography Service - Photoresist / Alfa Chemistry

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Photolithography Service

Photolithography is a precision machining process for patterning features on thin films or substrates. It uses light to transfer geometric patterns from a photomask to a photoresist on a substrate. The specific process flow is to place a photomask on top of the photoresist to block certain areas of ultraviolet light, leaving the unmasked areas exposed only to light. After exposure and development, the device structure is described on the photoresist layer. Then, the pattern on the photomask is transferred to the substrate through an etching process.

Photolithography process is a crucial step in semiconductor device fabrication, with applications including chemical sensors, biosensors, electrodes, and MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices.

Our Services

Lithography processing

Alfa Chemistry has many years of experience in micro-nano processing, and has a micro-nano processing platform equipped with electron beam lithography machine, laser direct writing lithography machine, contact lithography machine, desktop lithography machine, thin film deposition machine, etching machine and other photolithography auxiliary machines. According to the customer's process requirements, we can provide the corresponding lithography processing services. The lithography technologies we offer are listed in the table below

Lithography processing

Lithography techniques	Minimum graphic size	Scribing accuracy
Contact and proximity lithography	1 μm	±0.5 μm
Stepper lithography	0.35 μm	≤ 0.15 μm (X,Y)
Scanning lithography	0.35 μm	≤ 0.15 μm (X,Y)
Laser direct writing	0.3 μm	±0.5 μm
Electron beam lithography	10 nm	40 nm
Ion beam lithography	1 μm	±0.5 μm

Pattern transfer process

Photoresist is typically used as a temporary mask during patterning. Therefore, the final step in photolithography is usually to remove the photoresist to transfer the pattern to the substrate. This pattern transfer process requires fast speed, no residue remains, and no damage to substrates or materials deposited on them, which can be divided into stripping and etching. Alfa Chemistry provides two techniques for removing the photoresist to transfer the pattern to a thin metal film, namely metal lift-off and wet etching.

Metal Lift-Off

Metal lift-off is a method of patterning metal with a photoresist as a sacrificial layer to define a pattern. First, a photoresist is patterned, and then a thin metal film is deposited on top of the patterned photoresist. The final step is to dissolve the photoresist which lifts off the overlying target material to reveal the pattern on the metal film. Metal lift-off allows patterning of inert and difficult-to-etch metals without the potential damage and compatibility issues of etching.

Wet Etching

Wet etching is also a method for removing photoresist from metal films by using liquid chemicals to reveal the pattern of the metal film. It involves multiple chemical reactions, and the main steps include: (a) liquid chemical diffusion to the structure to be removed; (b) reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions occur between liquid chemicals and etched materials; (c) byproducts diffuse from the reacted surface in the reaction. Commonly used etchants include hydroxides, tetramethylammonium hydroxide, ethylenediamine pyrocatechol, etc.

Our Capabilities

365 nm highly collimated UV exposure system
Minimum feature resolution: 5 µm
Photoresist types: positive, lift-off.
Circular substrates up to 6" diameter
Square substrates up to 4" x 4"
Flexible substrates, glass, silicon wafer or customer's substrate

Our Capabilities

Why Choose Us

For many years, Alfa Chemistry has been providing customers with solutions for lithography-related processes. Alfa Chemistry has reliable pre-sales and after-sales services, and is responsible for customers to the end. You can trust Alfa Chemistry for:

Why Choose Us

Alfa Chemistry adopts the most rigorous quality control system to ensure the high quality of products.
Alfa Chemistry provides targeted service based on customer needs. We'll do our best to resolve all your concerns.
Alfa Chemistry has a core technical team with rich industry experience to provide customers with professional photoresist solutions and technical support.
Alfa Chemistry offers flexible and targeted custom manufacturing to help our customers reduce capital and time costs.

Reference

Nayak, A. P.; et al. Wet Etching.In: Bhushan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology. Springer, Dordrecht. 2012, 2829–2830.

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