A Customizable and Low-Cost Ultraviolet Exposure System for Photolithography

For microfluidic device fabrication in the research, industry, and commercial areas, the curing and transfer of patterns on photoresist relies on ultraviolet (UV) light. Often, this step is performed by commercial mask aligner or UV lamp exposure systems; however, these machines are often expensive, large, and inaccessible. To find an alternative solution, we present an inexpensive, customizable, and lightweight UV exposure system that is user-friendly and readily available for a homemade cleanroom. We fabricated a portable UV exposure system that costs under $200. The wafer holder's adjustable height enabled for the selection of the appropriate curing distance, demonstrating our system's ability to be easily tailored for different applications. The high light uniformity across a 4 diameter wafer holder (light intensity error similar to 2.9%) was achieved by adding a light diffusing film to the apparatus. These values are comparable to the light uniformity across a 5 diameter wafer holder from a commercial mask aligner (ABM 3000HR Mask Aligner), that has a light intensity error of similar to 4.0%. We demonstrated the ability to perform photolithography with high quality by fabricating microfluidic devices and generating uniform microdroplets. We achieved comparable quality to the wafer patterns, microfluidic devices, and droplets made from the ABM 3000HR Mask Aligner.

Automated summary

In this study, we proposed an inexpensive, customizable, and lightweight UV exposure system for microfluidic device fabrication. The system features an adjustable wafer holder that can be easily tailored for different applications, and achieves high light uniformity by adding a light diffusing film. The system demonstrated high-quality photolithography by fabricating microfluidic devices and generating uniform microdroplets.