Microfluidics and Mask-Aligner: How to Make the Right Choice?
Nicolas Brillouet,
CTO,
Kloé
Mask-aligners have been used for decades as key technological equipments
to manufacture microchips, in particular in semiconductor industry.
More recently, these equipment, historically based on the use of mercury
lamps as the UV-source, have also been considered as relevant systems
to enable the fabrication of chips in microfluidics (molds / PDMS
casting, Lab On a Chip, Organ-on-a-Chip…) in particular thanks to the
cost effective use of plastic/flexible photomasks (before considering
the use of chrome photomasks to achieve higher resolution). However, the
use of mercury lamps, that was already very energy consuming, is also
now worldwide compromised in a very near future by considering the
global ban of using mercury in fluorescent lighting (Minamata Convention
on Mercury) that entered into force in 2017, and that has been ratified
by 140 countries, while the last use exemptions remain presently in
effect later by 2027. Without waiting for this recent decision dedicated
to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of
mercury, our company KLOE SAS introduced UV-KUB3 on the market since
2015 as the very first range of UV-LED based mask-aligners and this
presentation highlights the major advantages of using this range of
innovative lithography equipments as the new generation of
mask-aligners.
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