New fabrication techniques of SU-8 fiber holder with cantilever-type elastic microclips by inclined UV lithography in water using single Mylar mask

In contact UV lithography, a pair of cantilever beams fabricated by two inclined exposures at ±45° in SU-8 using a single mask will form a connected end on the top of SU-8 layer. These beams made of SU-8 with fixed-end have been used as optical fiber holders (Ling and Lian in Microsyst Technol 13(3–4):245–251, 2007). Recently, a two-mask, two-step process to fabricate free-end cantilever beams from SU-8 using inclined UV lithography has been developed (Ling et al. in Microsyst Technol 15(3):429–435, 2009), which has been successfully applied to fabricate SU-8 optical fiber holders with long free-end cantilever beams. In this process, two masks are needed in order to obtain free-end beams and the alignment between two exposures is always time consuming with limited accuracy. Two new techniques, inclined UV shadow mask lithography and inclined UV proximity lithography, have been illustrated here for fabricating free-end SU-8 cantilever beams, which eliminate the precise alignment step required in our previous work (Ling et al. in Microsyst Technol 15(3):429–435, 2009). In the inclined UV shadow mask lithography approach, the SU-8 cantilever beams without connected ends are formed by using one main mask and two shadow masks. Each shadow mask is used to selectively transfer one of the two separated patterns on main mask into SU-8 layer at +45° and −45°, respectively. In the inclined UV proximity lithography approach, a proper proximity gap between mask and SU-8 surface is obtained by using a 50 μm thick Mylar sheet, so that the exposing light paths that formed connected beam ends will fall inside the proximity layer instead of the SU-8. In this way, the desired open-end cantilever structures can be achieved. In this paper, the principles and the fabrication procedures of the proposed techniques are demonstrated and the preliminary results are discussed.     

In situ fabrication of SU-8 movable parts by using PAG-diluted SU-8 as the sacrificial layer

In this paper we proposed a novel technology to make SU-8 movable parts in situ by using PAG-diluted SU-8 or SU-8R, a SU-8 solution with no photoacid generator (PAG) content, as the sacrificial layer. Since they are not or less sensitive to UV light the unexposed bottom layer in UV lithography will be dissolved to release the movable components during the final develop in PGMEA (Propylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether Acetate). The use of PAG-diluted SU-8 or SU-8R as a sacrificial layer offers several advantages including significant reduction in processing steps. It becomes the simplest technique currently available for in situ fabrication of SU-8 movable parts. In this paper the lithographic sensitivities of SU-8 as a function of the PAG concentration, detailed fabrication process and examples of fabricated SU-8 movable parts will be presented.     

Micromolding fabrication of microresistors with a composite of carbon nanotubes and SU-8 polymer and the application in Wilkinson power divider

This paper reports a new method to fabricate microresistors for applications in micro-electromechanical systems. The fabrication is based on ultraviolet (UV) lithography and micromolding replication. A master mold was first made using UV lithography of a negative-tune photoresist, SU-8. The SU-8 master mold was then used to produce a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) intermediate mold. The PDMS intermediate mold was used to replicate the microresistor using composite mixture of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and SU-8 photoresist. The replicated microresistors were thermally cured at 95 °C for 6 h. The performances of the replicated micro-resistors were then tested. The experiment had also been conducted using the micro-resistors as isolation resistance in a Wilkinson power divider to test their functionality. Because passive communication components such as Wilkinson power dividers can potentially be made with lithography/micromolding technologies and using polymer as structural material, microresistors as reported in this paper may potentially be suitable for using in such applications.     

Thermal-deformation analysis of a polymer micro-mirror optical device

This paper analyzes the thermal deformation in SU-8 polymer materials when subjected to different fabricating parameters and exposed to a high power light source for long durations for 45° micro-mirror applications. By experimentally optimizing the fabrication process, new fabricating technologies for micro-optical components can be developed. During the fabrication process, a polymer-based material is subjected to different soft bake, post exposure bake (PEB), hard baking temperatures; also, the baking times and exposure dosages were varied. Any of these variables can change the thermal stability of the material’s bonding energy and dynamic molecular behavior. There have not been many studies on the thermal deformation of a micro-mirror structure. A thermal dilatometer DIL-402C was used in this study to measure the thermal stability and determine changes in the material phase of SU-8 material. After optimizing the process parameters and finding that the inclined surface roughness was 49 nm, the thermal deformation was found to be 25 ppm (at 100°C).     

Fabrication of chamber for piezo inkjet printhead by SU-8 photolithography technology and bonding method

The chamber is an important part of the inkjet printhead. However, the present fabrication methods of chamber suffer from a low alignment resolution between nozzle plates and piezoelectric structure and residual SU-8 removing problems during chamber fabricating process. In this paper, a SU-8 chamber was fabricated by using ultraviolet (UV) photolithography and SU-8 thermal bonding method. By this method, the infilling problem of the chamber during thermal bonding process was solved, and low alignment resolution problem of conventional UV exposure system during assembly process was avoided. The thickness of the SU-8 nozzle plate was optimized, and the influence of bonding parameters on the deformation of chamber was analyzed. The simulation results show that the optimal thickness of the SU-8 nozzle plate is 40 μm and the optimal bonding parameters are bonding temperature of 50 °C, bonding pressure of 160 kPa and bonding time of 6 min. The tensile test results show the bonding strength of the SU-8 chamber is 2.1 MPa by using the optimized bonding parameter.     

Design and fabrication of SU-8 micro optic fiber holder with cantilever-type elastic microclips

The optic alignment module containing out-of-plane 3D micro lenses, and micro optic fiber holders have been fabricated using tilted UV lithography technique in water with SU-8 photoresist (Ling and Lian in Proc SPIE 4979:402–409, 2007). Each holder is a circumscribed quadrilateral formed by a V-groove and pairs of fixed microclips, which will hold the fiber in position through the elastic deformation when the fiber is inserted. Since these microclips were fixed cantilever beams and its effective beam length, the distance between the fixed end of the beam and beam–fiber contact point, is very short (~62.5 μm), the stress on the beam is high even under a small (few microns) deformation. The inserted optical fiber was either too loose to lose its alignment accuracy, or too tight causing the clips to break because of dimensional tolerance. It becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to use them in practical applications. Therefore, the key issue of fabricating optical alignment module is to have a suitable stiffness of microclips with an appropriate deformation during the fiber insertion, which can provide enough force to hold the fiber for accurate alignment and avoid introducing neither significant viscous deformation nor the damage to the clips. In this paper, a novel technique to fabricate SU-8 cantilever beam as elastic clamping device in optical fiber holder is proposed. Simulation based on SU-8 material properties indicates that for a 250-μm-long, 50-μm-thick SU-8 beam the clamping force per unit beam width will range from 10 to 100 Newton/m as the deflection increased from 1.4 to 14 μm. This predicted performance is comparable to or even better than that of existing silicon nitride microclips in optical fiber holding application [Bostock et al. in J Micromech Microeng 8(4):343–360, 1998]. By using a two-mask process, we have fabricated free-end cantilever beams as fiber holding clips. In order to have longer beams over V-groove, the slots in the V-groove were introduced, which allow the beams extended deeper into the sloped V-groove walls. The micro alignment module with 250-μm-length cantilever beams as microclips for housing 125-μm-diameter optical fibers has been successfully fabricated using a 300-μm-thick SU-8 photoresist layer by a two-mask UV lithography processes. This approuch offers significant advantages over other techniques with respect to costs of material, simple in equipment, and easy in manufacture. These optical fiber holders with elastic microclips combined with pre-aligned out-of-plane 3D micro lenses make it possible that to build an integrated micro optic system with precise alignment accuracy on a wafer-scale.     

Single-step UV diffraction lithography to define a hydrophobic SU-8 interconnected hoodoo structure

Micro-hoodoo (inverse trapezoidal) structures fabricated by silicon etching, soft-lithography, or photolithography have attracted great interest due to their improved hydrophobicity and self-cleaning properties. We present here a simple single-step UV diffraction lithography technique for fabricating micro-hoodoo structures with or without adjustable interconnecting bridges using a negative SU-8 photoresist. The theoretical calculations and the fabrication results revealed that the sizes and sidewall profiles of the micro-hoodoo structures and interconnecting bridges could be precisely controlled by the fabrication conditions, including the pattern-to-pattern spacing, exposure dose, and gap between the mask and the SU-8 surfaces. The theoretical calculations were conducted using an integrated model based on a Fresnel diffraction model for estimating the hoodoo size and an exponent decay model for estimating the sidewall profile. The integrated model agreed well with the fabricated hoodoo sizes and sidewall profiles, and the model provided an explanation for the structural instabilities observed during formation of the interconnecting bridges between hoodoos. The interconnecting bridges made the hydrophobic hoodoo structures sticky toward water, with a water contact angle hysteresis of up to 86.6°. The directional bridge interconnections produced directionally sticky hydrophobic surfaces that successfully mimicked function in butterfly wings to enable directional water removal.     

Fast replication of out-of-plane microlens with polydimethylsiloxane and curable polymer (NOA73)

Out-of-plane microlens, as its in-plane counterpart, is an important micro optics component that can be used in building integrated micro-optic systems for many applications. In earlier publications from our group, an ultra violet (UV) lithography based technique for out-of-plane microlens fabrication was reported. In this paper, we report a replication technology for time-efficient fabrication of out-of-plane microlens made of a curable polymer, NOA73. Microlens of cured SU-8 polymer was fabricated using a unique tilted UV lithography process, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was molded using the resulting SU-8 master to form a negative mold, curable polymer NOA73 was then casted in the PDMS mold and out-of-plane microlens replica made of NOA73 was finally obtained after curing. The entire replication process took less than 5 h. Since PDMS negative mold was reusable, multiple replications of the microlens could be done with the same mold and each replication only took about 30 min. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images showed that NOA73 microlens replica had almost identical shape as the SU-8 master. In Comparison to the SU-8 microlens, microlens replica of UV curable polymer had slightly longer focal length and smaller numerical aperture due to the lower refractive index of NOA73. In addition, NOA73 microlens replica also had improved spectral transmission. Because of its compatibility with soft lithography technique, the reported replication process may also be used to integrate out-of-plane microlens into micro-opto-electro-mechanical-systems (MOEMS) and BioMEMS chips.     

Fabrication of comb-drive micro-actuators based on UV lithography of SU-8 and electroless plating technique

Comb-drive microactuators are widely used in MEMS devices. Most of the comb-drive microactuators reported in MEMS field are made using fabrication technology with silicon as the structural material. Recent progress in ultra violet (UV) lithography of SU-8 has made it feasible to fabricate ultra high aspect ratio microstructures with excellent sidewall quality. In this paper, a research work on fabrication and metallization of high aspect ratio SU-8 polymer comb-drive microactuators was reported. The fabrication process combined multi-step and multi-layer UV lithography of SU-8 on a silicon substrate and copper electroless plating to selectively metallize the SU-8 microstructure. The selective electroless plating was achieved by using UV modification of the SU-8 microstructures and the careful control of the exposure dosage. Preliminary experimental results have proved the feasibility of the microactuator and the fabrication technology.     

Polymeric (SU-8) optical microscanner driven by electrostatic actuation

A torsional micromechanical scanner was fabricated using photosensitive polymer (SU-8). The proposed polymer-based optical microscanner with reduced torsional stiffness offers a new approach to increase scanning angles. The scanner consists of two parts; the top layer (micro mirror and electrodes) and the bottom layer (anchors and electrodes). The SU-8 scanner is actuated by electrostatic force generated by gap-closing electrodes. For the fabricated optical scanner with the mirror size of 3 × 3 mm², the experimentally obtained scanning angles were 0.43° for 60 Hz (non-resonant) and 1.54° for 1.13 kHz (resonant) at the input voltage of 160 V. This paper also proposes a simple and new fabrication method, which can effectively control the stiffness of the torsional springs by molding SU-8 photoresist through V-groove on the silicon substrate, thereby increasing the scanning angles.     

Fabrication of SU-8 photoresist micro–nanofluidic chips by thermal imprinting and thermal bonding

Micro–nanofluidic chips have been widely applied in biological and medical fields. In this paper, a simple and low-cost fabrication method for micro–nano fluidic chips is proposed. The nano-channels are fabricated by thermal nano-imprinting on an SU-8 photoresist layer followed by thermal bonding with a second SU-8 photoresist layer. The micro-channels are produced on the second layer by UV exposure and then thermal bonded by a third layer of SU-8 photoresist. The final micro–nano fluidic chip consists of micro-channels (width of 200.0 ± 0.1 μm and, depth of 8.0 ± 0.1 μm) connected by nano-channels (width of 533 ± 6 nm and, depth of 372 ± 6 nm), which has great potential in molecular filtering and detection.

     

Design and fabrication of a SU-8 based electrostatic microactuator

Comb-drive microactuator is widely used in MEMS devices and traditionally is made of silicon as structural material using silicon-based fabrication technology. Recent development in UV lithography of SU-8 has made it possible to fabricate the ultra high aspect ratio microstructures with excellent sidewall quality. In this paper, we report a low cost alternative to the silicon-based comb drive by using cured SU-8 polymer as structural material. The microactuator was designed to have a integrated structure without assembly or bonding. A unique integration fabrication process was successfully developed based on UV lithography of SU-8 and selectively metallizing SU-8 polymer structures. Preliminary experimental results have proved the feasibility of the microactuator and the fabrication technology.     

Nickel and copper electroplating of proton beam micromachined SU-8 resist

 Proton beam micromachining (PBM) has been shown to be a powerful technique to produce three-dimensional (3D) high-aspect-ratio microstructures (Watt et al., 2000). Potential commercial applications of PBM, which is a fast direct write technique, will become feasible if the fabrication of metallic molds or stamps is realised. Metallic components can be produced by electroplating a master from a microstructure produced in resist. The production of high-aspect-ratio metallic stamps and molds requires a lithographic technique capable of producing smooth and near 90° sidewalls and a one to one conversion of a resist structure to a metallic microstructure. PBM is the only technique capable of producing high-aspect-ratio microstructures with sub-micron details via a direct write process. In PBM, SU-8 (Lorenz et al., 1997) resist structures are produced by exposing the SU-8 resist with a focused MeV proton beam followed by chemical development and a subsequent electroplating step using Ni or Cu. The data presented shows that PBM can successfully produce high-aspect-ratio, sub-micron sized smooth metallic structures with near 90° sidewall profiles. Received: 10 August 2001/Accepted: 24 September 2001     

Fabrication of monolithic integrated fiber-lens connector arrays by deep proton irradiation

 Deep proton irradiation in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a fabrication method for monolithic integrated micro optics which offers high stability and interesting autoalignment features. The process consists of three basic steps: irradiation of a PMMA substrate followed by either a development of the irradiated regions or a swelling of the irradiated regions by organic vapor or both applied to different regions. With this technique a variety of elementary refractive microoptical components and monolithically integrated combinations can be fabricated: microlenses, microprisms, beam splitters, fiber connectors with selfaligned microlenses on top of each fiber. Received: 30 October 1995 / Accepted: 8 December 1995     

Microfabrication and characterization of UV micropatternable,electrically conducting polyaniline photoresist blends for MEMS applications

We present the preparation and electrical characterization of an electrically conductive blend of polyaniline (PANi) and SU-8 UV micropatternable photoresist that offers promising opportunities for MEMS applications. The blend was prepared by shear mixing of PANi and SU-8 2010 resist at an rpm of 1,000 for 15 h. The composite was spin-coated on a silicon wafer at an 850 rpm in order to achieve a thickness of 50 µm, followed by soft baking at 70 °C for 35 min and cooling to room temperature. The desired structures were patterned using masked UV exposure for 60 s. Full cross-linking of PANi and SU-8 blend was achieved by a post-exposure bake at a temperature of 90 °C for 25 min, followed by cooling to room temperature. The desired electrode structures and trace lines were then developed in SU-8 developer for 10 min by manual agitation. The fabricated structures were characterized under Scanning Electron Microscope and through Electron Dispersion X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) demonstrating that good patternability was achieved when using photo-initiator (triarylsulfonium hexafluoro-anitimonate salts) and gamma-butyrolactone solvents in the blend. Further, electrical characterization together with EDS showed that an electrically conductive path is formed in the PANI SU-8 2010 polymer matrix. It is also observed that resistivity as low as 350 Ω-m was achieved at 8.6 wt% of PANi in SU-8 2010 polymer matrix.     

Design, fabrication, and test of an on-chip micro flow cytometer with integrated out-of-plane microlenses

A micro flow cytometer with an integrated three-dimensional hydro-focusing unit and out-of-plane microlenses was successfully fabricated and tested. The entire system was fabricated with SU-8 ultra-violet lithography process. In the hydro-focusing unit, sheath flows pass through a trapezoid-shaped chamber with three 30° slopes to focus the sample flow in both horizontal and vertical directions. As an essential component in the on-chip optical detection system, integrated out-of-plane microlens was embedded in the sidewall of the fluid outlet channel in the detection area. A pre-aligned optical fiber holder was fabricated on chip to fix the output optical fiber in a position aligned to the microlens. Optical simulation and analysis were also conducted using commercial software Zemax. Numerical simulation results confirmed that the use of microlens substantially improved the detection efficiency by focusing the fluorescent light from the sample cells into the output optical fiber. Preliminary cell counting experiment was performed using the fabricated micro flow cytometer system and the experimental results proved the feasibility of the integrated micro flow cytometer design.     

Active material micro-actuator arrays fabricated with SU-8 resin

 Active materials such as piezoelectric ceramics and shape memory metal alloys commonly actuate active control and intelligent material systems. Commercially available piezoelectric materials exhibit small actuation stroke and shape memory metal alloys have limited bandwidth. The proposed micro-actuator array design and fabrication process increases the actuation stroke of piezoceramic material by a factor of 1.5 for a 2 × 2 array; two active material segments connected in parallel and two in series, and doubles the response time of a 1 × 4 shape memory alloy driven array; four active materials segments connected in series. A high aspect ratio fabrication method incorporating SU-8 resin and conventional lithography is the process that forms the array linkages. The SU-8 resin array structures are 300 μm tall.     

Fabrication of photoplastic high-aspect ratio microparts and micromolds using SU-8 UV resist

 An innovative method for fabrication and rapid prototyping of high-aspect ratio micromechanical components in photoresist is discussed. The photoresist is an epoxy-negative-tone resist, called SU-8, which can be structured to more than 2 mm in thickness by UV exposure. Small gears of 530 μm in diameter and 200 μm in thickness have been realized in this photoplastic and their functionality has been demonstrated. In addition a process called MIMOTEC^TM (MIcroMOlds TEChnology) has been established for the fabrication of metallic micromolds. MIMOTEC^TM is based on the use of the SU-8 spun on high thicknesses and electrodeposition of nickel. Thermoplastic microcomponents have been injected and mounted in watches. Received: 25 August 1997/Accepted: 23 October 1997     

High throughput projection UV lithography of high-aspect-ratio thick SU-8 microstructures

This paper presents a method and an ultra-violet (UV) lithography system to fabricate high-aspect-ratio microstructures (HARMS) with good sidewall quality and nice dimension control to meet the requirement for industrial high throughput and high yield production of micro devices. The advantages, equipment, working principle of UV projection scanning exposure, and scanning exposure strategies are introduced first. Following the numerical simulation for the UV projection scanning exposure of thick SU-8 photoresist, experiment results are demonstrated for different exposure strategies. With Continually Changing Focus Projection Scanning (CCFPS), SU-8 microstructures with 860 μm high and 15 μm feature size are demonstrated. For microstructure with 866 μm height, 20 μm width, from the top layer to the bottom layer, the dimension can be controlled in the range of +0.7 to ?1.7 μm; also, the vertical sidewall angle can be controlled inside 90 ± 0.16°. It approves that the CCFPS exposure for HARMS can achieve much straighter and more vertical sidewall compared with UV contact print or UV projection exposure with focusing image on the resist surface or an optimized depth.     

Micro molding for double-sided micro structuring of SU-8 resist

Advances in micro and nano fabrication technologies for MEMS require high-level measurement techniques with regard to sampling and sensitivity. For this purpose at the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) highly sensitive piezoresistive 3D force sensors based on SU-8 polymer have been developed. In this paper we present an improved micro fabrication process for a double-sided micro structured design. The sensors are produced by multilayer processing techniques such as UV lithography and coating methods. The double-sided micro structured design demands a photoresist application method which simultaneously features a top side structuring and a casting from a mold. We use a new micro molding process to meet the demands. The micro fabrication technology is described, focusing on the development of the molding structure for shaping of the bottom side and a capable release process for the detachment of the molded structures. The fabrication process of the SU-8 mold layer is optimized to fabricate molding structures with heights from a few μm up to 350 μm. Therefore different SU-8 formulations, namely with classification numbers 5, 25, 50, and 100, have been used. The fundamental limitations for the mold design result from the lithography process, which defines the smallest lateral resolution, and from the characteristics of a molding process, e.g. the impossibility to realize an undercut. To allow for reliable release, the molding structures have to be coated with a sacrificial layer. Silicon nitride is deposited onto the substrate with accompanying monitoring of the deposition temperature during the PECVD process.