• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.282-287
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• 2017

SU-8 is an epoxy-type photoresist widely used for the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio (HAR) micro-structures in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). To fabricate highly integrated structures, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has emerged as the preferred manufacturing process for planarizing the MEMS structure. In SU-8 CMP, an oxidizer decomposes organic impurities and particles in the CMP slurry remove the chemically reacted surface of SU-8. To fabricate HAR microstructures using the CMP process, the adhesion between SU-8 and substrate material is important to avoid the delamination of the SU-8 film caused by the mechanical-dominant material removal characteristic. In this study, the friction force during the CMP process is measured with a CMP monitoring system to detect the delamination phenomenon and investigate the delamination of the SU-8 film from the silicon substrate under various pressure conditions. The increase in applied pressure causes an increase in the frictional force and wafer-edge stress concentration. The frictional force measurement shows that the friction force changes according to the delamination phenomenon of the SU-8 film, and that it is possible to monitor the delamination phenomenon during the SU-8 CMP process. The delamination at a high applied pressure is explained by the effect of stress distribution and pad deformation. Consequently, it is necessary to control the pressure of polishing, which can avoid the delamination in SU-8 CMP.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.467-473
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• 2013

In this study, two-dimensional finite element models were developed and experiments were conducted using an atomic force microscope to investigate the tribological characteristics of an SU-8 layer coated on a patterned wafer for microsystem applications. The results revealed that both the adhesion and the friction forces measured by the atomic force microscope were lower for the SU-8 coated surface than for the bare silicon surface. This is attributed to the hydrophobicity of SU-8. Another important result derived from the finite element analysis was the critical load required to fracture the SU-8 film with respect to the thickness. The critical loads for thicknesses of 200, 400, and 800 nm were approximately 13, 22, and 28 mN, respectively, which corresponded to a Hertzian contact pressure of 1.2-1.8 GPa. These results will aid in the design of a suitable SU-8 thickness for microsystem components that are in contact with one another.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.33-39
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• 2015

In this work, SU-8 passivated IZO thin-film transistors(TFTs) made by solution-processes was investigated for enhancing stability of indium zinc oxide(IZO) TFT. A very viscous negative photoresist SU-8, which has high mechanical and chemical stability, was deposited by spin coating and patterned on top of TFT by photo lithography. To investigate the enhanced electrical performances by using SU-8 passivation layer, the TFT devices were analyzed by X-ray phtoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR). The TFTs with SU-8 passivation layer show good electrical characterestics, such as ${\mu}_{FE}=6.43cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, $V_{th}=7.1V$, $I_{on/off}=10^6$, SS=0.88V/dec, and especially 3.6V of ${\Delta}V_{th}$ under positive bias stress (PBS) for 3600s. On the other hand, without SU-8 passivation, ${\Delta}V_{th}$ was 7.7V. XPS and FTIR analyses results showed that SU-8 passivation layer prevents the oxygen desorption/adsorption processes significantly, and this feature makes the effectiveness of SU-8 passivation layer for PBS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.493-494
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• 2006

SU-8 can be implemented as a mask for micro Abrasive Jet Machining (micro-AJM) process [1]. In this paper, we will evaluate the quality of micro grooving result on glass substrate by micro-AJM process which using SU-8 as a mask. It was evaluated on width and edge profile of the micro grooving. The result was having distortion compare with the master film used to pattern the SU-8 mask. The value of distortion with other properties which came along with it, such as depth and surface roughness, can be optimized in order to fabricate micro-channel for micro-fluidic application.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.598-604
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• 1999

This paper describes the research to minimize the film stress and maximize the aspect ratio of photoresist structure, especially about SU-8 for electroplating mold. UV LIGA process using SU-8 allows fabricating high aspect ratio polymer structures. However, it is hard to get fine patterns in the high aspect ratio structures because of high internal stress and difficulty of removing SU-8. The purpose of this paper is to setup the process condition for the obtainment of both low film stress and high aspect ratio and to find design rules that make the pattern be less dependent on stress problem. Firstly, the process of heat treatment and exposure of SU-8 are proposed. These two conditions control the amount of cross-linkage in polymer structure, which is the most important parameter of both pattern generation and remaining stress. Heat treatment is dealed with soft bake and post-exposure-bake. Temperature and time duration of each step are varied with heat treatment condition. Some test patterns are fabricated to evaluate the proposed process. Nickel electroplating is performed with the mold fabricated through the proposed process to confirm the SU-8 as a good electroplating mold.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.68-72
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• 2003

In this paper, we developed a new thick photoresist fabrication technology for 3-dimensional microstructures. In general, like as AZ photoresist was coated with thin film thickness about 1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ to 30 $\mu\textrm{m}$, but photoresist like SU-8 has thickness of several tens $\mu\textrm{m}$ or more and high aspect ratio. When we fabricate a microstructure using the thick photoresist like SU-8, cracks on the SU-8 thick photoresist are appeared by stress which was caused by sudden cooling down during bake of the thick photoresist spun on wafer. Thus, it was hard to fabricate the microstructure using the thick photoresist for electroplating. In this paper, we developed a new process to produce a 3-dimensional microstructure without the crack by stress through a suitable thick photoresist coating, time control of cool down and time control of PEB (Post Expose Bake).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.891-894
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• 2005

SU-8은 부드러운 벽면을 가지는 두꺼운 패턴을 제작하는 데 사용되는 음성 감광제(negative photoresist)이다 .이것은 처리 후에 강성이 높고 화학적으로 강인한 장점을 가지고 있으며 최근 MEMS 디바이스의 구조체로 쓰이고 있다. 그러나 SU-8은 공정 처리요소들에 대하여 매우 민감하고 사용하기 어려운 것으로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 공정 처리요소로 exposure energy, post exposure bake (PEB) temperature, PEB time을 조절하여 실험을 하였다. Response Surface Methodology (RSM)를 이용해 각 인자가 delamination에 미치는 영향에 대해 분석하였고 이를 바탕으로 SU-8의 delamination을 최소화하기 위한 처리요소들의 최적화 방안을 제시하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.65-66
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• 2009

This paper describes a procedure developed to fabricate negative photo resist SUMS to a semi-insulating (SI)-GaAs-based substrate. SU-8 is attractive for micromachine multi-layer circuit fabrication, because it is photo-polymerizable resin, leading to safe, and economical processing. This work demonstrates SUMS photo resist can be used for RFIC/MMIC application.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-26
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• 2004

Thin film is one of the most general structures used in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). To measure the mechanical properties of SU-8 film, tensile testing was adopted which offers not only elastic modulus but also yield strength and plastic deformation by load-displacement curve. Tensile testing system was constructed with linear guided servo motor for actuation, load cell for force measurement and dual microscope for strain measurement.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.325-330
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• 2007

For the application to optic devices, wafer level package including spacer with particular thickness according to optical design could be required. In these cases, the uniformity of spacer thickness is important for bonding strength and optical performance. Packaging process has to be performed at low temperature in order to prevent damage to devices fabricated before packaging. And if photosensitive material is used as spacer layer, size and shape of pattern and thickness of spacer can be easily controlled. This paper presents polymer bonding using thick, uniform and patterned spacing layer of SU-8 2100 photoresist for wafer level package. SU-8, negative photoresist, can be coated uniformly by spin coater and it is cured at $95^{\circ}C$ and bonded well near the temperature. It can be bonded to silicon well, patterned with high aspect ratio and easy to form thick layer due to its high viscosity. It is also mechanically strong, chemically resistive and thermally stable. But adhesion of SU-8 to glass is poor, and in the case of forming thick layer, SU-8 layer leans from the perpendicular due to imbalance to gravity. To solve leaning problem, the wafer rotating system was introduced. Imbalance to gravity of thick layer was cancelled out through rotating wafer during curing time. And depositing additional layer of gold onto glass could improve adhesion strength of SU-8 to glass. Conclusively, we established the coating condition for forming patterned SU-8 layer with $400{\mu}m$ of thickness and 3.25 % of uniformity through single coating. Also we improved tensile strength from hundreds kPa to maximum 9.43 MPa through depositing gold layer onto glass substrate.