UV-led lithography for 3-D high aspect ratio microstructure patterning

Abstract

This paper presents a UV lithography method that utilizes a UV-LED (ultraviolet light-emitting diode) array as a micropatterning light source for high aspect ratio polymer microstructure fabrication. The sidewalls of commercial 5-mm-diamater UV-LEDs were coated with an opaque polymer to suppress the side propagation of UV light and to enhance UV collimation, resulting in a maximum flare angle of 15°. The UV-LEDs were then assembled into a 10x10 array to form the light source. Although the flare angle of most conventional UV lithography tools is 2∼3°, resulting in a slightly better light collimation quality, the polymer structures microfabricated with the UV-LED approach showed similar reproduction fidelity and similar exposure times to patterns fabricated using conventional lithography. The UV-LED approach has the potential for cost reduction as well as simplicity of initial system setup and management. This latter feature is of particular importance in advanced, inclined three-dimensional (3-D) lithography schemes to create complex 3-D structures. The UV-LED system has been demonstrated to perform satisfactorily in these advanced 3-D lithography schemes.