The hot plate is used primarily for post-coat bake (solvent removal, reflow) of ZEP, MMA/PMMA and nLOF resists. It is located in the processing room of the ebeam zone (zone 7), next to the solvents bench, and is dedicated to ebeam lithography ONLY !!! Following resists and solvents are currently authorized to be used there: MMA, PMMA, ZEP, CSAR, nLOF, HSQ, FOX16. Please do not bring in any other material and do not try to process any other resist or substance there. If you have any special request, please, talk to Zdenek first.
The PRAZITHERM hotplate is an open plate without a top cover, and as such it does not have as good temperature uniformity across the plate due to the air flows present. The center should be expected to be several degrees C warmer than the edge. The standard setpoint for this plate is 200 deg C. Users are allowed to change it to suit their needs. PLEASE, after you are finished with your work, do re-set the plate setpoint back to 200 deg C, as this is where most users expect to find it.
To change the setpoint, press the “SET” button on the plate controller located at the base of the front panel of the solvents bench. While holding the “SET” button pressed, dial in desired setpoint temperature using the UP and DOWN arrow keys. When the desired number appears on the display, release the “SET” button. Now you need to wait until the plate ramps UP or DOWN to your desired temperature. It can take minutes to half an hour, depending on the amount and direction of change (cooling takes longer than heating). At 21 deg C, the setpoint and the real temperature are matched well. At 200 deg C, the real temperature of the plate in the center is 189 deg C, and the delta changes linearly in between.