A custom-built mask aligner (CBMA), which fundamentally covers all the key features of a commercial mask aligner, while being low cost and light weight and having low power consumption and high accuracy, is constructed. The CBMA is composed of a custom high fidelity light emitting diode light source, a vacuum chuck, a mask holder, high-precision translation and rotation stages, and high resolution digital microscopes. The total cost of the system is under $7500, which is over ten times cheaper than a comparable commercial system. It produces a collimated ultraviolet illumination of 1.8–2.0 mW cm−2 over an area of a standard 4-in. wafer, at the plane of photoresist exposure, and the alignment accuracy is characterized to be <3 μm, which is sufficient for most microfluidic applications. Moreover, this manuscript provides detailed descriptions of the procedures needed to fabricate multilayered master molds using our CBMA. Finally, the capabilities of the CBMA are demonstrated by fabricating two- and three-layer masters for micro-scale devices, commonly encountered in biomicrofluidic applications. The former is a flow-free chemical gradient generator, and the latter is an addressable microfluidic stencil. Scanning electron microscopy is used to confirm that the master molds contain the intended features of different heights.
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机译:构建了定制掩膜对准器(CBMA),该掩膜从根本上覆盖了商用掩膜对准器的所有关键特征,同时成本低,重量轻,功耗低,精度高。 CBMA由定制的高保真发光二极管光源,真空吸盘,面罩固定器,高精度平移和旋转平台以及高分辨率数字显微镜组成。该系统的总成本在7500美元以下,比同类商业系统便宜十倍以上。在标准的4英寸区域内,它会产生1.8-2.0 mW cm -2 sup>的准直紫外照明。在光致抗蚀剂曝光平面上的晶片上,对准精度的特征是<3μm,对于大多数微流体应用来说已经足够了。此外,该手稿提供了使用我们的CBMA制造多层母模所需步骤的详细说明。最后,通过为生物微流体应用中经常遇到的微型设备制造两层和三层母盘,证明了CBMA的功能。前者是无流动的化学梯度发生器,后者是可寻址的微流体模板。扫描电子显微镜用于确认母模包含不同高度的预期特征。
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