Coating and Development Station for High-Resolution Optical Lithography

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Flexible sensor systems based on organic semiconductors enable a wide range of novel applications, especially in the field of wearable electronics and health and life sciences. Most research, however, is focussed on the optimization of individual sensors and devices; a larger scale integration of a flexible system and the integration of microfluidic system to deliver and control analytes is only rarely addressed due to the high technological challenges. The Institute for Mikrosensors, -actuators, and -systems (IMSAS) of the University of Bremen combines knowledge in organic devices with extensive experience in the fabrication of microsystems and microfluidic elements, which provides an ideal background to move the field of flexible organic sensor systems further towards higher integration density. A highly reproducible optical lithography is essential for this research. However, the equipment currently available at IMSAS for coating and development of optically active layers provides neither the functionality nor quality required for an integration of flexible components. Essential options are missing. Although a multi-step lithography on complex surfaces is a prerequisite for the integration of organic devices, the equipment currently available at IMSAS only allows simple spin-on deposition, which results in large variations in layer thickness and device characteristics. Several deposition methods for adhesion promoters are not possible as well, and the choice of photoresists and developers is limited due to safety requirements. To fill these gaps in the fabrication technology, and to be able to perform the intended experiments, a new coating and development station is requested here that i) allows homogeneous coating and development including edge removal, ii) allows spray coating for more complex topographies, iii) allows deposition of an adhesion promoter inside a vacuum hot plate, and iv) includes two additional hot plates to perform complex temperature treatments.