Contact thermal lithography

Contact thermal lithography is a method for fabricating microscale patterns using heat transfer. In contrast to photolithography, where the minimum achievable feature size is proportional to the wavelength of light used in the exposure process, thermal lithography is limited by a thermal diffusion length scale and the geometry of the situation. In this thesis the basic principles of thermal lithography are presented. A traditional chrome-glass photomask is brought into contact with a wafer coated with a thermally sensitive polymer. The mask-wafer combination is flashed briefly with high intensity light, causing the chrome features heat up and conduct heat locally to the polymer, transferring a pattern. Analytic and finite element models are presented to analyze the heating process and select appropriate geometries and heating times. In addition, an experimental version of a contact thermal lithography system has been constructed and tested. Early results from this system are presented, along with plans for future development.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Schmidt, Aaron Jerome, 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gang Chen.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/27116

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/27116