Yohannes M. Desta

Fabrication of high-aspect-ratio microstructures on planar and nonplanar surfaces using a modified LIGA process

Large surface areas (tens of square centimeters to square meters) covered with high-aspect-ratio microstructures (HARMs) have potential applications in a wide range of fields including heat transfer, adaptive aerodynamics, acoustics, catalysts, seal and bearing design, and composite materials. HARMs are typically hundreds of micrometers in height, with widths ranging from a few micrometers to tens of micrometers, and they can be manufactured from a variety of materials such as metals, polymers, and ceramics. Three of the barriers to extensive use of large HARM-covered surfaces are cost, nonplanarity of typical surfaces, and adhesion of the microstructures to the surface. A starting point for inexpensive reproduction of large arrays of HARMs is the plastic molding step of the LIGA micromanufacturing process. In order to address the latter two problems, the standard LIGA process was modified/extended. Free-standing polymer sheets, perforated with a pattern of high-aspect-ratio throughholes, were clamped to conductive substrates. The sheets provide a template for electrodeposition of nickel microstructures onto the target surface. This process makes it economically feasible to electroform metal microstructures directly onto large planar and nonplanar metal surfaces (cylinders).

Tapered LIGA HARMs

The standard LIGA process takes advantage of the use of x-ray lithography to produce mold inserts with nearly vertical sidewall; the typical slope of patterns produced by x-ray lithography of polymethylmethacrylate is 0.1%. This lack of significant taper (draft angle) greatly increases the difficulty associated with ejecting parts during demolding. In this paper, a procedure is described to fabricate a mold insert with tapered features having a height of approximately 1 mm and lateral dimensions of approximately 300 μm. A set of six oblique exposures of a thick layer of SU-8 (an EPON epoxy based negative tone resist) is used to create hexagonal posts with a 3° draft angle. An electroforming process is used to fabricate a nickel mold insert with the tapered features. This mold insert is used to injection mold tapered polymer high aspect ratio microstructures. The dimensions of the SU-8 tapered structures (as well as the mold insert) are within 4 μm of desired/predicted values.

Materials for LiGA and LiGA-based microsystems

The LiGA technique that has been developed for the inexpensive mass fabrication of microdevices consists of three basic processes: X-ray lithography, electroforming and moulding. In each of these steps the properties of the used materials and the process parameters are strongly correlated to each other. Thus, optimizing processes requires detailed knowledge of the materials properties especially as the LiGA technique offers an extremely broad variety of materials (polymers, metals, alloys, ceramics) for the fabrication of three-dimensional microstructures. When it comes to specific applications of LiGA devices, it is often desirable to tailor the properties of materials and surfaces e.g. in respect to mechanical properties, optical properties, thermo- and electrochemical stability and biocompatibility. Again, a detailed knowledge of the properties of the various materials is crucial to optimize these tasks, keeping in mind that these properties on the microscale can differ from those of bulk materials.

Titer plate formatted continuous flow thermal reactors for high throughput applications: fabrication and testing

A high throughput, multi-well (96) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) platform, based on a continuous flow (CF) mode of operation, was developed. Each CFPCR device was confined to a footprint of 8 × 8 mm2, matching the footprint of a well on a standard micro-titer plate. While several CFPCR devices have been demonstrated, this is the first example of a high-throughput multi-well continuous flow thermal reactor configuration. Verification of the feasibility of the multi-well CFPCR device was carried out at each stage of development from manufacturing to demonstrating sample amplification. The multi-well CFPCR devices were fabricated by micro-replication in polymers, polycarbonate to accommodate the peak temperatures during thermal cycling in this case, using double-sided hot embossing. One side of the substrate contained the thermal reactors and the opposite side was patterned with structures to enhance thermal isolation of the closely packed constant temperature zones. A 99 bp target from a λ-DNA template was successfully amplified in a prototype multi-well CFPCR device with a total reaction time as low as ~5 min at a flow velocity of 3 mm s−1 (15.3 s cycle−1) and a relatively low amplification efficiency compared to a bench-top thermal cycler for a 20-cycle device; reducing the flow velocity to 1 mm s−1 (46.2 s cycle−1) gave a seven-fold improvement in amplification efficiency. Amplification efficiencies increased at all flow velocities for 25-cycle devices with the same configuration.

Ultra-deep x-ray lithography of densely packed SU-8 features: II. Process performance as a function of dose, feature height and post exposure bake temperature

Ultra-tall (2–4 mm), densely packed arrays of high aspect ratio micro structures (HARMs) are required for a variety of heat transfer and mass transfer devices currently under development. Great success has been reported lithographically defining relatively tall features using SU-8 as an x-ray resist, but excellent results are scarce with respect to patterning ultra-tall features with tight packing and small gaps between features. Diffusion of a cross-linking species from exposed regions to unexposed regions is believed to be the primary mechanism that prevents such features from being defined. In a companion paper, solvent content is shown to be an extremely important parameter that controls the quality of ultra-tall, tightly packed micro structure arrays. In this paper, a simple quasi-two-dimensional model is developed to qualitatively show that the adverse effects of diffusion of a cross-linking species can be significant. Also, experiments were performed to isolate the effects of parameters other than solvent content on performance (post exposure bake temperature, dose and top-to-bottom dose ratio, and feature height). These effects are placed in the context of the general hypothesis that preventing diffusion of cross-linking species is a key to successfully defining ultra-tall, tightly packed SU-8 HARMs. Experimental results are provided that demonstrate the ability to define SU-8 features with heights of 3 mm, and gaps between adjacent features of 125 µm (the gap therefore having an aspect ratio of 24).

SU-8-based deep x-ray lithography/LIGA

Poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA), a positive resist, is the most commonly used resist for deep X-ray lithography (DXRL)/LIGA technology. Although PMMA offers superior quality with respect to accuracy and sidewall roughness but it is also extremely insensitive. In this paper, we present our research results on SU-8 as negative resist for deep X-ray lithography. The results show that SU-8 is over two order of magnitude more sensitive to X-ray radiation than PMMA and the accuracy of the SU-8 microstructures fabricated by deep X-ray lithography is superior to UV-lithography and comparable to PMMA structures. The good pattern quality together with the high sensitivity offers rapid prototyping and direct LIGA capability. Moreover, the combinational use of UV and X-ray lithography as well as the use of positive and negative resists made it possible to fabricate complex multi-level 3D microstructures. The new process can be used to fabricate complex multi-level 3D structures for MEMS, MOEMS, Bio-MEMS or other micro-devices.

Multilevel microstructures and mold inserts fabricated with planar and oblique x-ray lithography of SU-8 negative photoresist

For patterning thick photoresist films, x-ray lithography is superior to optical lithography because of the use of a shorter wavelength and a very large depth of focus. SU-8 negative resist is well suited to pattern tall, high-aspect ratio microstructures in UV optical and x-ray lithography with rapid prototyping capability due to its high sensitivity. The negative tone of the SU-8 resist offers advantages in fabricating multi-level and non-planar microstructures using x-ray lithography or a combination of x-ray and UV optical lithography. In this paper, we present a fabrication process for multi-level metallic mold insert by a combination of multi-layer SU-8 patterning, poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) molding, and nickel electroplating to make final nickel mold inserts that are suitable for injection molding and hot embossing of plastics and ceramics.

Fabrication of ultra thick, ultra high aspect ratio microcomponents by deep and ultra deep X-ray lithography

Two advanced processes have been developed for fabricating ultra thick and ultra high aspect ratio (HAR) microstructures. One is the SU-8 based deep X-ray lithography (SU-8 based DXRL) process which uses the normal deep X-ray beam to expose the negative SU-8 resist. Another one is wave length shifter(WLS) based Ultra deep X-ray lithography (WLS-UDXRL) process which uses special ultra deep X-ray beam from wave length shifter to expose the positive PMMA resist. For SU-8 based DXRL process, the typical exposure time of a layer of SU-8 is about 1% of that of PMMA. Even for a few millimeters thick resists the exposure time are just a few minutes. In WLS-UDXRL process, the X-ray beam is strengthened by a wave length shifter(WLS) so the required exposure time for ultra thick PMMA is reduced greatly. In the paper, the characteristic of the these two processes are discussed and the examples of the ultra thick and ultra HAR microstructures fabricated by these processes are presented (ultra thick up to 3600 /spl mu/m and HAR up to 360).

Fabrication of graphite masks for deep and ultradeep x-ray lithography

Masks made from graphite stock material have been demonstrated as a cost-effective and reliable method of fabricating X-ray masks for deep and ultra-deep x-ray lithography (DXRL and UDXRL, respectively). The focus on this research effort was to fabricate masks that were compatible with the requirements for deep and ultra deep X-ray lithography by using UV optical lithography and gold electroforming. The major focus was on the uniform application of a thick resist on a porous graphite substrate. After patterning the resist, gold deposition was performed to build up the absorber structures using pulsed- electroplating. In this paper we will report on the current status of the mask fabrication process and present some preliminary exposure results.

Cost-effective masks for deep x-ray lithography

The production of X-ray masks is one of the key techniques for X-ray lithography and the LIGA process. Different ways for the fabrication of X-ray masks has been established. Very sophisticated, difficult and expensive procedures are required to produce high precision and high quality X-ray masks. In order to minimize the cost of an X-ray mask, the mask blank must be inexpensive and readily available. The steps involved in the fabrication process must also be minimal. In the past, thin membranes made of titanium, silicon carbide, silicon nitride (2-5μm) or thick beryllium substrates (500μm) have been used as mask blanks. Thin titanium and silicon compounds have very high transparency for X-rays; therefore, these materials are predestined for use as mask membrane material. However, the handling and fabrication of thin membranes is very difficult, thus expensive. Beryllium is highly transparent to X-rays, but the processing and use of beryllium is risky due to potential toxicity. During the past few years graphite based X-ray masks have been in use at various research centers, but the sidewall quality of the generated resist patterns is in the range of 200-300 nm Ra. We used polished graphite to improve the sidewall roughness, but polished graphite causes other problems in the fabrication of X-ray masks. This paper describes the advantages associated with the use of polished graphite as mask blank as well as the fabrication process for this low cost X-ray mask. Alternative membrane materials will also be discussed.