Acquisition of a Photolithography Suite for the University of Washington's Bioeng

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):.We are requesting the acquisition of a photolithography system, a "suite" of pieces of equipment that altogether allow for producing micropatterns of photoresist on surfaces using UV light and photomasks. (We have obtained permission from the Program Official Dr. Marjorie Tingle to request a set of instruments, rather than a single one, because the instruments always go together - they are useless without each other.) The suite includes 1) a contact mask aligner (which aligns and presses the mask against a surface, and exposes the surface through the mask to collimated UV light), 2) a photoresist spinner (which allows for dispensing photoresist onto a surface while the surface is being spun at high speed, so as to form a thin, homogeneous film of photoresist); 3) a wet station (to develop the photoresist after exposure); and 4) hot plates and ovens (needed to evaporate the solvent from the photoresist prior to exposure and to complete the photochemical reaction after exposure). The photolithography suite will be primarily for use by the Bioengineering Department and in general for biologists on campus at the University of Washington in Seattle, and will be located in a HEPA-filtered room of the new Bioengineering Building (Foege Building, inaugurated March 2006). The room is ready to move the equipment in, being equipped with HEPA filters, vacuum outlets, fume exhaust, power lines, and Ethernet lines. The department is effectively cost-sharing in that it hasalready invested in reserving and conditioning the HEPA-filtered room for use as an eventual photolithography facility. A floor plan of the HEPA room is attached. A vented cabinet for chemicals is already built in. Relevance Given the growing role that microengineering plays in Bioengineering and Biology research (including microfluidic "Lab on a Chip" and cell culture systems, micropatterned substrates, microelectrodes, etc.), a small-scale approach to the use of photolithography facilities is critical for fostering innovation, speeding research, and reducing costs.