European Regional Development Fund

Procurement and establishment of a maskless exposure device
for photolithography with ERDF funding

This device will bring the technical possibilities in the field of microstructure processes to a modern, internationally competitive level. This concerns both the urgently needed increase in resolution into the sub-µm range, as well as the possibility of producing 3D structures in the future.

The Maskless Aligner can expose 4" wafers.  A lateral resolution of up to 0.6μm is possible and enables the urgently needed multilayer patterning. In addition, it also opens up the possibility of gray tone lithography, allowing complicated three-dimensional structures to be lithographically produced. The system also operates without a mask as a direct exposure device, thus saving the ongoing costs of writing lithographic masks that are incurred with conventional processes. Working without masks also allows greater flexibility in the creation of microstructures during the course of the project, since the layout can be continuously adapted and improved without the need for a new mask for each change step.

In addition, synergy effects result not only from the joint use of several working groups in the institute, but also from considerable savings in running costs, since exposure masks will no longer be required in the future.