PSFL Technology
"Patterned thin film coating devices"
3t Flxima™ PSFL Technology
3t Technologies Limited is an advanced product development and technology innovation company specialising in thin and thick film electronic device process and manufacturing development. 3t Technologies is located in Essex in England, UK and works in the semiconductor, microelectronics, photonics, medical, photovoltaics, and displays industries solving science and technology problems in device fabrication and manufacturing.
In electronic device manufacture there are many occasions when a depositing whole area coating must be patterned to a specific design layout. Traditionally this is achieved using aperture masks based on processes that include liquid cast or dry-film transferred photolithography patterned on-sample coatings, contact screens, and proximity and/or contact stencils including Fine Metal Masks (FMMs). Each of these methods has individual factors that limit their use including materials toxicity, wet processing, ease of mask manufacture, mask intimacy with the substrate, and clean removal with any processing residue after use. These do not apply for all cases but are limits in the general technology.
3t has developed a process that addresses a number of these limitations and provides an alternative to traditional patterning methods, for the manufacture of large area micro-to-macro patterned additive thin film coatings for electronic and photonic devices using low temperature whole area deposition processes. The 3t solution, termed Flxima™ PSFL, uses a laser precision cut aperture patterned ultra-thin plastic film mask that is in intimate contact with a substrate but which cleanly releases from it under the action of mechanical peel-off removal after use.
3t's peelable solid film lithography (PSFL) precision patterned masking is a process that simplifies thin and thick film coating deposition patterning in device manufacture and bridges the gap between aperture-patterned plastic and metal stencil masks and photolithography patterned photo resin masks.
PSFL has several distinguishing features compared to the alternatives cited above including:
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Smaller features sizes than stencil or fine metal masks
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Ultra-thin film mask in intimate contact with the substrate
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Cleaner and more user-friendly process than photolithography
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Dry, used film mask, peel removal in sheet form
The key stages of 3t's core process is illustrated in a typical thin film additive deposition process below.
PSFL benefits include:
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Cleaning stages substantially reduced
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Easier and cleaner used mask and retained residual coating material collection for waste disposal (or reclaim if appropriate)
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Smaller hardware footprint (cleanroom space)
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Lower cost consumables
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Lower processing time for mask production with reduced labour cost per mask
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Material heating stages eliminated
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No toxic or hazardous liquid chemicals handling, storage, waste collection and disposal, or need for purchase of personal protective equipment to work with it
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Overall capital equipment spending reduced
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Processing steps reduced improving process efficiency and yield
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PSFL mask patterning undertaken off-sample and transferred onto it with/without alignment depending upon the application requirement, so sample surface remains uncontaminated by the patterning process.
Electrically conductive tracks and contact pads produced using PSFL ultra-thin film masks can support a wide range of materials for thin and thick film structures used in applications such as:
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Thin film materials resistivity measurement transmission line electrical contacts
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Van der Pauw electrical contacts for resistivity and Hall coefficient measurement of thin film coatings
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Interdigitated electrodes for sensors
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Micro antennas on rigid and flexible substrates
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Transparent and opaque micro heaters
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Capacitor test array top contacts
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Transparent conductive contacts for photonic devices
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Porous contacts for sensors
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Fine finger metal contacts for photovoltaic (solar) cells
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High resolution track-and-gap conductors including contact pad termination for IC die attachment
Other applications of the PSFL technology patterned ultra-thin film masks is possible for semiconducting, insulating, and special property materials (such as piezoelectric, pyroelectric, magnetic, etc.) in organic or inorganic single layer coatings or combinations in auto-aligned multi-stack form.
Desktop R&D Processing System
In developing our Flxima™ processing technology we designed a desktop laser R&D L3PM system that was built in collaboration with a number of companies in our network (see system photograph and 3D rendered model of the hardware configuration below).
The L3PM multi-process R&D system shown above on the right was installed in the Cambridge University Engineering Department cleanroom and the 3D model on the left shows the cylinder-to-plate process configuration that enables sheet film mask patterning on-cylinder before subsequent transfer onto a substrate (with/without mechanical or optical alignment) in a single process cycle.
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