【直播】睿涉者 · 前沿科学论坛第八期 | 剑桥大学Russell Cowburn院士、中国科学院物理研究所张广宇研究员

The Direct-write lithography systems (also known as ‘maskless aligners’ or ‘laser writers’) serve a similar function to mask aligners, i.e. they are used to expose patterns onto photoresist coated wafers as part of a photolithography process.  This important process step is used in many parts of nanotechnology, materials science, electronics, photonics and biomedical research.  However, mask aligners use a glass mask plate to define the pattern that is to be exposed.  In an R&D setting, where the pattern that is to be exposed may change frequently, it is costly, slow and inconvenient to have to have new glass mask plates frequently remade.  Direct-write systems do not need a mask plate - the pattern is defined in software - and so are ideal for rapidly changing R&D.  Direct-write lithography has a number of other advantages over mask aligners, including the ability to make 3-dimensional structures, which is why many University clean rooms are now switching over to direct-write.  In this seminar, Prof Cowburn will explain the principles of direct-write photolithography, give some practical examples of how a MicroWriter ML is used and show some examples of its use in spintronics and biomedicine from his own research group.