2024-12-20 to 2025-01-02: Reduced Holiday Operations

Dear Birck Research Community,

The Purdue winter recess begins effective Friday afternoon December 20th and concludes Thursday morning, January 2. The university is officially closed during this time. As we have done in past years, the Birck Nanotechnology Center will remain available for research but will be unstaffed and hazardous gasses will be unavailable. Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Click the link above to get more detail about equipment conditions and rules.

Refer to the Material and Process Compatibility page for information on materials compatible with this tool.
Equipment Status: Set as UP, PROBLEM, or DOWN, and report the issue date (MM/DD) and a brief description. Italicized fields will be filled in by BNC Staff in response to issues. See Problem Reporting Guide for more info.

Status	UP
Issue Date and Description
Estimated Fix Date and Comment
Responding Staff

/wiki/spaces/BNCWiki/pages/6236386

MA6 Staff Page (Restricted)

iLab Name: MA6
iLab Kiosk: BRK Lithography Core
FIC: David Janes
Owner:Joon Park
Location: Cleanroom - N Bay
Maximum Wafer Size: 4"/100 mm

Overview

General Description

The Suss MA/BA6 UV 400 Mask and Bond Aligner is used to expose 4" wafers with 5" photomasks. Back side alignment is available. Limited use of smaller substrates for backside alignment may be possible with a 2" chuck, please contact BNC staff for more info if interested.

Specifications

Exposure

Light source: 350 W Mercury Short-arc lamp (UV400).
Exposure wavelengths: 350-450 nm, covering the g-line (436 nm), h-line (405 nm), and i-line (365 nm)
Output power:
CP CI1 CI2
300W
7.0 mW/cm²
at 365 nm (i-line)
18.5 mW/cm²
at 405 nm (h-line)
Intensity Uniformity: ±5%
Gap Setting Accuracy: 1 μm
Proximity Exposure Gap: 1-999 μm

Alignment Accuracy:

Top Alignment: ± 0.5 μm
Backside Alignment: ± 1 μm
Bond Alignment: ± 0.5 μm

Maximum Resolution, by contact type

Proximity (20 μm gap): <3.0 μm
Soft contact: <2.5 μm
Hard contact: <1.5 μm
Vacuum contact: <0.8 μm

Alignment Stage

X travel: ±10 mm
Y travel: ±5 mm
Theta range: ±5°
Mechanical alignment stage accuracy: 0.1 μm (step size)

TSA Microscope Stage:

X: ±25 mm
Y: ±15/-75 mm
Theta: ±3°
Split Field objective Separation: 32-160 mm

BSA Splitfield Microscope:

Objective Separation: 15-100 mm
Movement Range: Y:+50/-20 mm
Field of View: 0.92 x 0.69 mm²

Sample Requirements and Preparation

Samples should be cleaned and prepared with further processing steps in mind, as well as conditions that enable good adhesion between the substrate and photoresist.

For the aligner itself, samples must be free of resist on the substrate backside. If any resist or residue is present, it should be removed with the following process:

Put on a clean, new pair of solvent gloves.
In a solvent hood (with appropriate PPE), squirt some acetone on either a cleanroom wipe, a cleanroom swab, or a polyester wipe.
Hold the sample firmly with tweezers, or if necessary, with clean, double gloved hands. Note that holding with hands is only recommended if the gloved hand has touched NOTHING since being put on.
Carefully wipe the wafer backside with the wipe/swab, making sure not to touch the substrate front side. Acetone can wick into resist, and so should only areas of resist to be removed.
Repeat as necessary to remove any residue.

Standard Operating Procedure

Stage & Microscope Drifting Error Prevention

Please move back and forth or shake two joysticks before turning on power.
Do not use xy joystick. It is not accurate. Please use xy arrow button. For rotation, you can use the joystick left side.
Please be patient to use BSA/TSA/STG button. After changing the mode, please wait at least 1 second before moving the stage. You navigated your sample and mask very fast.
Once you find that the stage or microscope did not stop, please press BSA/TSA/STG button and wait for 1 second, until it stopped.
When you loading wafer, if you get vacuum loss error, please unload and clean your sample.

Questions & Troubleshooting

What can I do about the "Exposure system not in front position; Move system manually" error when starting up the machine?
This error indicates that the exposure mirror house is not in the fully forward position (cause is currently unknown, as of 10/05/17). To clear this, locate the black rubberized handle on the left side of the machine (approximately even in height with the mirror house, higher than the mask holder but below the microscopes). Gently and slowly, use the handle to pull the mirror house assembly forward until it clicks in place. The machine will then proceed as normal.

How do I start the lamp power supply?
BNC standard procedure is to leave the lamp power supply "on" at all times. In the rare event that a previous user has turned off the lamp power supply, follow the instructions below to restart it:

Flip the power switch on ("I" will be level with the panel, "O" will be raised)
Wait for the power on self test to complete (<5 minutes) and "rdy" to be displayed.
Press the "START" button. This will start the mercury vapor lamp through an ignition arc automatically repeated up to 9 times.
Once the lamp is ignited, "cold" will be displayed for ~5 minutes while the lamp warms up.
Once warm up is complete, the "CI 2" LED should be red. If either the "CP" or "CI 1" LEDs is red instead, press the "CI 2" button to switch modes.
Please send an email to core staff letting us know the supply was off. We will contact the previous user to let them know to leave the supply on after they are finished.

The power supply shows "rdy", what do I do?
Starting from Step 3 in How do I start the power supply? follow the remainder of the steps. There is no need to power cycle the power supply.