Maskless Aligner & Maskless direct-write lithography system

The Durham Magneto Optics MicroWriter ML3 Mesa is a maskless (direct-write) photolithography system with a 365 nm long-life semiconductor light source. Maximum writing area is 149×149 mm; maximum wafer size 155×155×7 mm. Minimum feature sizes are 0.6 µm, 1 µm, and 5 µm across the full writing area, with automatic selection of resolution via software (no manual lens change).

The XY interferometer has 15 nm resolution for precise motion control; write speeds are up to 15 mm²/min (0.6 µm), 50 mm²/min (1 µm), and 180 mm²/min (5 µm). An autofocus system using yellow light with real-time surface-tracking laser has no minimum wafer size. The system includes a high-quality optical microscope with ×3, ×10, and ×20 objectives, alignment to lithographic markers (±1 µm 3σ), grey-scale exposure (255 levels) for 3D patterning, and a 30 nm minimum addressable grid (15 nm stage resolution).

File formats: CIF, GDS2, BMP, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF; Oasis, DXF. Additional capabilities: automatic laser-based wafer centring, built-in 2D optical surface profiler (200 nm thickness resolution), automatic wafer inspection (each die imageable), autocalibration tool, and software API for external control. 2D barcodes can be generated for exposures.

Applications: MEMS, microfluidics, spintronics, 2D materials, micro-optics, rapid prototyping without masks.