Abstract

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.