Photolithography mask aligner creates new opportunities in MEMS
"Non-traditional industries are now snapping up mask aligners to help produce millions of new products," notes Brett Arnold, President of San Jose, California-based Neutronix, Inc., photolithography specialists providing custom engineered contact/proximity and mirror projection mask aligners.
Arnold's company, Neutronix, focuses on remanufacturing and custom-engineering Canon PLA 501/600 and MPA 600 series mask aligners. "These particular mask aligners are a very robust production tool, and no longer limited to silicon wafers," notes Arnold.
"Today's new applications represent a good example of the morphing of technology — taking something that was originally intended for one thing and applying it to another to create a new product or even a new market."Contact mask aligners offer specific advantages for thick-photoresist, micromachining applications where high aspect ratio printing of three-dimensional structures is required to produce these products.BEI Systron Donner, a division of BEI Technologies, Inc., produces mature MEMS sensors and systems that use its proprietary Quartz Angular Rate Sensor technology for integration into OEM applications that include short-term navigation, guidance and control systems, flight testing, robotics, and vehicle instrumentation.
"We use Canon PLA 501 proximity aligners for our patterns for the solid state GyroChip sensors because our smallest line-widths are only about 25 microns, so we don't really need a high end system," says Martin Dewey, pre-production manager for the R&D department of Systron Donner. "Although projection aligners could work for us, the capital investment was a little too steep. We believe the Canon machines to be the most cost effective for our purpose."
"We considered other suppliers like Karl Suss and Electronic Visions Group but felt that the remanufactured Canon machines from Neutronix were the best value," continues Dewey. "Today, MEMS and microfluidics device manufacturers stand to gain a competitive edge by utilizing mask aligner technology to create cost advantages as well as technical advances," concludes Arnold.
