Microfabrication Division

The equipment of this pole is classified into 3 categories:

Lithograph

What is lithography?

This technology consists of insolating a photosensitive resin through a stencil (or mask). After development of insolated areas (positive resins) or not (negative resins), the relief substrate obtained can constitute for example a mold for the replication of the initial pattern of the mask with other materials for the manufacture of microfluidic chips.

  • Exemple de fabrication d’un moule en résine négative SU-8 par la photolithographie

Equipment used

To make a mask:

The mask with the desired pattern can be:

  • plastic, created with a photoplotter (maximum resolution: 15 microns)
  • chrome-plated glass, made by laser lithography (maximum resolution: 1 micron)

To make a mold by lithography:

We have 3 spin coaters and a rolling machine for resining, an aligner (MJB4) and two aligners/insolators (UBKUB 2 and 3) as well as a direct writing machine (μPH Heidelberg for resins <6µm) , et enfin de deux hottes pour le développement des résines.

  • MJB4
  • UV-KUB2
  • MicroPG
  • Optical lithography with mask aligner (MJB4)

It is a sunstroke through a mask transferring the pattern of the mask to the resin. This device accommodates soft masks or chrome. It makes it possible to make double layer patterns with an alignment between the two layers.

  • Automatic optical lithography (Kloé UV-KUB2 and UV-KUB3)

It is a sunstroke through a mask to transfer the pattern of the mask to the resin. The optical source consists of LED lamps. This device accommodates flexible plastic masks and chrome masks. Alignment is only possible with UV-KUB3.

  • Laser lithography (Heidelberg μPG101)

This device makes it possible to do without a mask: its principle is the use of a laser light to directly insolate the resin point by point by following a previously registered design. Its advantage is its high focus height, which makes it possible to achieve the insolation of thin films of resin with particularly straight sides.

Thin film deposits

What is thin film deposition?

Thin film deposition consists of depositing layers of metals of a few nanometers. On the technology platform, we use sputteringand evaporator.

Equipment used

  • Evaporateur
  • Bâti hybride

An Edwards Auto 500 evaporator

Vacuum evaporation is a deposition technique that proceeds the material on the substrate to be covered by condensation of steam. The materials available are: Au, Ag, Al, Cr.

A hybrid rack offering several means of deposit or treatment of samples

This is a method in which the deposition takes place under vacuum in a rarefied argon atmosphere. The substrate and material are placed on two separate electrodes: the first on the anode and the second on the cathode. After acceleration, the Argon atoms will tear off the metal atoms and, by electromagnetic attraction, attract them to the substrate.  

  • 3 magnetron cathodic spray modules for co-spraying (RF and/or DC)
  • A cell effusion to make vacuum evaporation of organic precursors (T <3 50°C)
  • A plasma PKI source for cleaning or engraving samples
  • Possibility of making PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) deposits

Available targets: Au, Ag, Al, C, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, ITO, Ni, SiO2, Ti

Prototyping

Microfluidic chips are mainly produced in silicone (PDMS), known for its physical properties (bio-accounting, transparency, porosity). However, this material has some disadvantages such as incompatibility with some solvents.

As a replacement for PDMS, you can use other materials such as glass or plastic. For this, we put at your disposal a mechanical workshop.

Equipment used

  • Graveuse Laser
  • Micro-usinage CNC
  • Imprimante 3D

For plastic chips, we use COC thermoplastics that we press with brass or PDMS ("soft embossing") molds.

Manufacture of brass mold (Minitech Mini-mill)

It makes it possible to machine brass plates in order to use them to make thermoplastic chips. The vertical resolution is 5μm and horizontal is 20μm depending on the strawberries used.

Thermoforming / Bonding

For thermoplastics, we work with plastic plates and films of different thicknesses (100μm to 5mm). The thermoforming and bonding steps can be performed on 3 pieces of equipment:

  • A manual heating press (plate diameter: 10 cm)
  • A semi-automatic heating press (plate size: up to 30 cm)
  • A heated laminating machine

Laser engraving (Axxys Laser C180)

It makes it possible to drill glass or plastic plates up to 100μm in diameter but also to trace channels directly into the glass.

3D printing

From a 3D model and photosensitive resin, our 3D printer manufactures parts for a maximum resolution of 40 microns.  

For more information, please contact us.