New Open Architecture Mask Aligner Enable Researchers and Manufacturers to Leverage New Materials and Applications That will Improve Our Lives

A wide variety of opportunities expand the use of contact photolithography technology to an even wider range of applications.

(PRWEB) February 15, 2007 -- If the only thing constant is change, then the state of today's contact/proximity photolithography technology represents the "poster child" for this axiom. While mainstream semiconductor applications march on to the beat of Moore's Law, new applications for miniaturization and performance continue to be created that require new mask aligner designs capable of flexing with the needs of their users. From L.E.D.s to Life Science and from Solar Cells to Gyroscopes, enabling this renaissance are the new breed of mask aligner machines that offer the open architecture it takes to maximize the use of today's modern wafers and materials.

We recently converted from the old 4

In fact, all of our production is now shifting to the 6

We develop microfluidic, lab-on-a-chip type devices for analyzing blood cells for medical diagnostic and science applications

We chose the Quintel aligner because we were looking for a machine customizable for the many different plastic masks -- and substrates of different thicknesses and shapes -- found within the changing needs of a research environment.

The Quintel equipment seemed to have the best combination of product features and cost performance for our needs

To wit: 25-100% increases in the original wafer size -- along with optical and infrared backside alignment technology available on some machines -- has allowed manufactures of MEMS devices to cost-effectively increase production volumes.

"We recently converted from the old 4" to the larger 6" wafers," says Mike Planer, equipment and facilities manager for Silicon Microstructures, Inc., a supplier of both standard and custom pressure sensors and other microstructures. "In fact, all of our production is now shifting to the 6" wafer because you get twice as many dies for essentially the same amount of money, which is why we went to the Quintel machines."

In business since 1978, San Jose, California-based Quintel Corp. is representative of an established group of manufactures that now offer the new open-architecture type of mask aligner capable of handling a broad range of sizes (up to 200mm), shapes (round, square or rectangle), and substrates of varying types (Mylar, for example) and thicknesses (four layers, for instance).

"We develop microfluidic, lab-on-a-chip type devices for analyzing blood cells for medical diagnostic and science applications," says Dr. Daniel Irimia, a lead researcher at Harvard Medical School's laboratory at Boston Massachusetts General Hospital. "We chose the Quintel aligner because we were looking for a machine customizable for the many different plastic masks -- and substrates of different thicknesses and shapes -- found within the changing needs of a research environment."

Flexibility spells opportunity
In order to take full advantage of these new market needs, more and more manufacturers are turning to new mask aligner machines that feature the open architecture necessary to harness this process to their particular application.

"The Quintel equipment seemed to have the best combination of product features and cost performance for our needs," says Janice K. Mahon, vice president of technology commercialization for Universal Display Corporation of Ewing, New Jersey, which adapts photolithography technology for the purpose of perfecting its innovative organic light emitting device technology for use in opto-electronic applications.

Just as for UDC, other manufacturers stand to gain a competitive edge by utilizing today's open architecture mask aligner technology to create innovative products that open new markets.

For further information, contact
Andrea Cagnoni
Neutronix-Quintel (NXQ)
Phone (408) 776-5190
www.quintelcorp.com

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mask aligner photolithography

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