DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF EXCIMER-LASER BASED OPTICAL-SYSTEM FOR HIGH-PRECISION MICROSTRUCTURING

We report on the design of an excimer-laser based system for high prec ision micromachining of spinnerets using a mask imaging technique. Bot h the illumination and imaging unit are optimized for specified demagn ification ratios of 5 and 15, respectively. Detailed investigations we re performed to measure the resolution, depth of focus and the sensiti vity for the position accuracy of the substrate depending on illuminat ion parameters, A special test mask for measuring the resolution in co mbination with a new definition of measurement procedure is used. SEM views of ablation results with high machining quality are presented. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.