Laser micromachining of chemically altered polymers
During the last decade laser processing of polymers has become an important field of applied and fundamental research. One of the most promising proposals, to use laser ablation as dry etching technique in photolithography, has not yet become an industrial application. Many disadvantages of laser ablation, compared to conventional photolithography, are the result of the use of standard polymers. These polymers are designed for totally different applications, but are compared to the highly specialized photoresist. A new approach to laser polymer ablation will be described; the development of polymers, specially designed for high resolution laser ablation. These polymers have photolabile groups in the polymer backbone, which decompose upon laser irradiation or standard polymers are modified for ablation at a specific irradiation wavelength. The absorption maximum can be tailored for specific laser emissino lines, e.g. 351, 308 and 248 nm lines of excimer lasers. The authors show that with this approach many problems associated with the application of laser ablation for photolithography can be solved. The mechanism of ablation for these photopolymers is photochemical, whereas for most of the standard polymers this mechanism is photothermal. The photochemical decomposition mechanism results in high resolution ablation with no thermal damage at the edges of the etched structures. In addition there are no redeposited ablation products or surface modifications of the polymer after ablation.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Management and Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 661708
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-98-68; CONF-980117-; ON: DE98003720; TRN: AHC29814%%182
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: BIOS `98: an international symposium on biomedical optics, San Jose, CA (United States), 24-30 Jan 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Comparison of the ablation behavior of polymer films in the IR and UV with nanosecond and picosecond pulses
Analysis of neutral fragments from ultraviolet laser irradiation of a photolabile triazeno polymer