<azonenberg>
This is 20 micron half-pitch wires in copper on silicon
<azonenberg>
the background mottling is the incompletely etched chromium adhesion layer
<azonenberg>
I did the metal deposition in an evaporator on campus but will be buying a bell jar and vacuum pump soon so i can do metal evaporation at home
<azonenberg>
its a very simple process if you can get down to decently high vacuum
<azonenberg>
The calibrated camera is an amscope MD1900
<azonenberg>
cheap optics, a nikon/zeiss/mitutoyo would be way better
<azonenberg>
but for $1200 camera + scope it was a great price
<azonenberg>
a mitutoyo FS-60 (my dream scope) would run over ten grand
<gkwhc>
thats really expensive, but what you have currently looks great already!
<azonenberg>
Yeah
<azonenberg>
The other camera is a $50 samsung point and shoot
<azonenberg>
thats the one i took the nyan cat shot with
<azonenberg>
Puns about "nyanotechnology" were too good to pass up lol
<gkwhc>
haha true!
<azonenberg>
so when i got bored of my other mask art i made this one
<azonenberg>
And he is truly a nanoscale cat
<azonenberg>
around 600 microns x 300, which is big
<azonenberg>
but only 200nm deep
<azonenberg>
from top of copper to the surface of the silicon
<azonenberg>
(approximately, that was the intended thickness when i ran the deposition but I havent actually done profilometry on it)
<azonenberg>
In the next day or two i am going to be doing Cr evaporation on a wafer
<gkwhc>
exciting!
<azonenberg>
lift-off patterning of 800-1000nm Cr over a photoresist pattern
<azonenberg>
to be followed by a KOH wet etch
<azonenberg>
if successful i can do a through wafer pattern
<gkwhc>
about how long would the whole process take?
<azonenberg>
well, i am going to be doing several dies by lift-off as well as a half-wafer to test etching of the Cr
<azonenberg>
The evaporator on campus is in the mat sci department, it takes an hour or so for the vacuum pump to warm up
<azonenberg>
then maybe 20 minutes to pump down the chamber, two or three for the actual deposition
<azonenberg>
spin coating photoresist on a batch of dies is maybe 5 mins
<azonenberg>
lithography is 5-10 minutes per die
<azonenberg>
metal etch is fast
<azonenberg>
then the through-wafer etch is a good couple of hours
<azonenberg>
but i can remove the die after 10 mins or so to see if its working
<gkwhc>
i see
<gkwhc>
thats pretty fast
<azonenberg>
The evaporation is something i do a big batch (usually half or a whole 2-inch) every few weeks since i just need films to pattern and they last me a while
<azonenberg>
i'm not doing any multilevel metalization yet
<kristianpaul>
I'll buy a scope as soon i see this work can be asilly reproducesable and sourcable :)
<azonenberg>
kristianpaul: We're working on that
<kristianpaul>
last pic looks nice, where came froma ctually?
<azonenberg>
i'm still hoping to have a comb drive by end of year, i have most of the essentials donated
<azonenberg>
nyan cat?
<kristianpaul>
ahhh !
<azonenberg>
donated? what am i saying
<azonenberg>
designed
<kristianpaul>
from fab004Â Â i tought was another thing :)
<azonenberg>
and the last pic is one of my earliest tests when i was experimenting with litho techniques