Stencil Lithography

Our aim is to push the limits of shadow-mask surface pattering to reach smaller structures (> 50 nm) and to upscale to larger substrates. We strive to find solutions to challenges such as aperture clogging, gap induced blurring and surface diffusion. Further we develop a so-called dynamic stencil tool where the shadow mask moves with respect to the substrate.

Stencil lithography

The stencil is fabricated and aligned to the substrate	Both substrate and stencil are placed into the evaporator	The stencil is removed, leaving the patterned substrate

Stencil lithography is a high resolution shadow-mask technique used for structuring surfaces at the micro and nanometer scales. It is a one-step technique that eliminates resist-related processing steps, common otherwise in standard lithography. A stencil (membrane with apertures) is placed (aligned if necessary) and clamped to a substrate. The clamped set is placed in an evaporator and material is despotied through the stencil’s apertures onto the substrate.

Stencil lithography is applicable to deposition, etching and implantation.

Dynamic stencil lithography consists of the relative motion of the stencil to the substrate during deposition or in between deposition steps. This allows the in-situ fabrication of multi-material, multi-layer micro- and nanopatterns.

Keywords: stencil, stencil lithography

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