Contact Lithography - History

History

The first integrated circuits had features of 200 micrometres which were printed using contact lithography. This technique was popular in the 1960s until it was substituted by proximity printing, where a gap is introduced between the photomask and the substrate. Proximity printing had poorer resolution than contact printing (due to the gap allowing more diffraction to occur) but generated far less defects. The resolution was sufficient for down to 2 micrometre production. In 1978, the step-and-repeat projection system appeared. The platform gained wide acceptance due to the reduction of the mask image and is still in use today.

Contact lithography is still commonly practiced today, mainly in applications requiring thick photoresist and/or double-sided alignment and exposure. Advanced 3D packaging, optical devices, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) applications fall into this category. In addition, the contact platform is the same as used in imprint processes.

Recently, two developments have given contact lithography potential for comeback in semiconductor lithography. First, surface plasmon resonance enhancements including the use of silver films as lenses have been demonstrated to give resolution of less than 50 nm using wavelengths of 365 and 436 nm. Second, nanoimprint lithography has already gained popularity outside the semiconductor sector (e.g., hard-drive, biotechnology) and is a candidate for sub-45 nm semiconductor lithography, driving defect reduction practices and uniformity improvement for masks in contact with the substrate. Step-and-flash imprint lithography (SFIL), a popular form of nanoimprint lithography which involves UV curing of the imprint film, essentially uses the same setup as contact lithography.