MicroWriter is a flexible photolithography machine designed for rapid prototyping and small-volume manufacturing in R&D laboratories and small clean rooms. Conventional approaches to photolithography are usually based on exposing through a chromium-glass mask manufactured by specialist vendors. The fact that all of the wafer is exposed in parallel makes this technique fast. The alternative conventional approach is to use direct-write laser lithography, where a computer-controlled laser writes directly to the wafer. The optics required to make a direct-write machine expose quickly are extremely complicated and result either in the machine being very expensive (~€1M) or very slow (~18 hours exposure time for a single wafer).
The low-cost MicroWriter combines the flexibility of maskless direct writing with the speed of parallel exposure.
