Get Ready! – Heidelberg Maskless Aligner Installation Nearly Finished

Nanotech West (NTW) staff has been hard at work over the last few weeks to finish the installation and qualification of our new maskless alignment system, the Heidelberg MLA150 . The initial qualification tests have looked very promising and the system is a dream to use even for very small samples. The final installation steps and acceptance testing are currently scheduled for the week of February 17th. Assuming all goes according to plan, we will open the system up and begin tool training the week of February 24, 2020.

This new lithography system brings some great new capabilities but also some minor changes in workflow compared to our current photo processes. The most notable change will be the transition from physical photomasks to electronic design files. For users hoping to transition existing processes there will be a bit of work up front to prepare for a smooth changeover. In order to bring users up to speed quickly, NTW staff will be hosting
a series of classroom workshops to introduce the system and answer any questions. The schedule for these is listed below. Please RSVP to Dave Hollingshead if you would like to attend.

Heidelberg Maskless Aligner

Heidelberg Instruments MLA 150 installed in Bay 2

  • MLA 101 Session #1: Friday February, 14th @ 2PM (NTW Rm 218)
  • MLA 101 Session #2: Tuesday February, 18th @ 2PM (NTW Rm 218)
  • MLA 101 Session #3: Thursday February, 20th @ 10AM (NTW Rm 218)

Please feel free to bring along any electronic design files (GDS, DXF, etc) or other information that you would like us to look over.

Summary of System Capabilities

  • High-Speed, Fully Maskless Patterning
  • Automatic and Manual Alignment
  • 375nm and 405nm laser sources
  • Compatibility with standard positive and negative resists as well as SU-8
  • 3x3mm – 150mm x 150mm samples
  • High Resolution Mode (specified to 0.6µm)
  • 256 Level Grayscale Mode
  • Backside Alignment