Industrial micromachining applications of excimer lasers

Dr M C Gower
Exitech Lid
Hanborough Park, Long Hanborough.
Ogord OX8 8LH. England

The ability of the excimer laser to dry etch and micromachine materials such as polymers, crystals and ceramics with extremely
high precision is now well established'. The first true industrial implementation of the excimer laser onto production lines has
occurred since 1988 in the microelectronics industry for drilling small feedthrough via holes in insulating layers in multichip
modules. The excimer laser has proved to be. well suited to this industry for which microfabrication is an underpinning
technology. Currently the most active areas of research on the industrial uses of excimer lasers are also in microelectronics - like
for example laser-assisted CVD and ion implantation, chip circuit and mask repair, TFT silicon annealing, photolithography,
wafer marking, planarisation etc. Microfabrication is also at the heart of many products in other areas like, for example, the
biomedical and sensor industries. While just beginning to be applied to these areas, the excimer laser could soon find widespread
use in the fabrication of products such as contact lenses; medical probes for monitoring bodily functions; microsurgical and body
implant devices; environmental monitors of trace elements, impurities and microbes in fluids like water.

1. MICROMACHINING APPLICATIONS IN T H E MICROELECTRONICS INDUSTRY

Excimer lasers excel at microprocessing materials. The most active and demanding industry for microfabrication is in the
manufacture of small electrical structures such as printed circuit boards or in microelectronic semiconductor devices in the form of
integrated circuils (silicon chips). Thus it is no surprise that many research studies and feasibility trials have been carried out on
using excimer lasers for a variety of the production steps used by this industry. Because of the tight tolerances and high production
volumes involved, the potential application of excimer lasers to microelectronics fabrication is one of the most demanding on
laser performance in terms of power, beam quality and reliability. Laser manufacturers are addressing these stringent specifications
by cayloring devices to suit the particular needs of the application.

The speed at which modem computers operate is often limited by the time delays produced by the intricate interconnections
between integrated circuits rather than by the chips themselves. Thus there is great emphasis placed on developing efficient high
speed chip interconnection packaging. One recent method uses printed circuit boards comprising of mutilayer sandwiches of acrylic
resin, polyimide and copper on which can be mounted and interconnected over 100 chips. The package relies on building up layer
by layer copper/acrylic/polyimide laminations with as many as 10,000 interconnection via holes drilled between conductive
metallic layers. After drilling, circuits on one layer are connected to the one below by electroless plating of copper down the via
holes. Further laminations are then added on top and via hole drilling repeated. The - 8 0 p diameter via holes must be cleanly
drilled with aspect ratios close to unity through each acrylic/polyimide laminate. The excimer laser has been found to be the only
satisfactory method for cleanly drilling these small holes. Using a laser fluence of between 0.5-0.8J/cm2 that does not damage the
copper, it lakes between 300 to 400 pulses to simultaneously drill up to 100 holes through the polymer laminate with either e
conformal contact mask or a projected mask image that defines the hole pattem. Since there is insufficient fluence to remove the
copper, once through to the next layer the drilling stops automatically. After initial validation, drilling such components with 12
cxcimcr lasers has been used successfully on a production line on a 24 hours a day, 6 day a week basis since 1988 and represents
the first true use of an excimer laser on a fully automated basis2.

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 2. MICROFENESTRATION OF CONTACT LENSES B Y EXCIMER LASERS
The degree of comfort experienced by wearers of contact lenses over an extended period of time depends on the level of tears and
oxygen that reaches the c o m a of the eye. Soft contact lenses with a high water content improve oxygen permeability but are
more delicate and prone to producing eye infections than hard (PMMA derivative) lenses. Microfenestration of hard contact lenses,
whereby small holes are fabricated into the lens outside the field of view, has been studied for several years as a technique for
improving the passage of tears and oxygen to the comea. However the difficulties in fabricating the small holes economically and
without weakening the mechanical integrity of the lens have prohibited its inuoduction as a consumer product. The technique
described here of using excimer lasers to microfenestrate contact lenses has been developed by Award Technology Lid and Exitech
Ltd i n collaboration with British Technology Group Ltd who hold extensive worldwide patent applications.

Using imaging of a mask illuminated with an ArF laser, microfenestration of contact lenses has been carried out. In a hydrophilic
lens, -Sopm diameter hole arrays have been drilled in 40 sectors around the non-optical periphcry of the lens. The original shape,
form and handling characteristics of the lens have been retained. The cxcimer laser allows the holes or 'pores' to be formed without
debris or burrs in all polymer formulations used for fabricating contact lenses. Clinical trials have shown that the oxygen
permeability of lenses with a low water content of -38% was raised to that of lenses having a -80% water content. Clinical trials
currently in progress initially show a greatly improved wearing coml"ort level for excimer laser microfenestrated lenses.

3. MICRODISC ARRAY CHEMICAL SENSORS

The electrochemical technique of anodic srripping vol/amme/ry (ASV) is currently one of the most sensitive for detecting heavy
metal ions in fluids. Sweeping the magnitude of a bias voltage applied to a mercury electrode immersed in a fluid strips ions from
thcir ligands that then concentrate in the electrode as a mercury amalgam. Peaks in the measured current are specific to the ion of
interest and allow trace metals in the solution to be detected at the ppb level. Modem electronic instrumentation for analysis and
readout is compact and computerised. The electrodes used are usually either a hanging mercury drop or a mercury film deposited
onto vitreous carbon. The mercury drop is formed from a fine capillary which itself requires particular attcntion and is often
cumbcrsome. On the other hand to increase planar diffusion of reagents to the surface, single film electrodes have the drawback
that either they must be rotated or the solution shrred. However with arrays of small electrodes fabricated by excimer laser etching
- a process developed and patented by EcosseSensors and Exitech Ltd, mass transport to the electroactive surface occurs by
cylindrical/spherical diffusion so no stirring or electrode rotation is required. Mercury is deposited by electroylsis of the reagent.
Since the sensitivity of the sensor increases linearly with the number 0 1 electrodes, the microdisc array electrode array detects
microamp currents rather the pA levels encountered when using a single large electrode. Reduction of oxygen, which is an
interfering electrode reaction in classical polarography and requires a thorough and lengthy deoxygenation step prior to
electroanalysis, is much less pronounced when using microelectrode arrays. Between measurements mercury film electrodes must
be eirher polished or the stripping process stopped before dissolution of the mercury occurs. With a disposable clectrode like the
microdisc array or the mercury drop, a fresh surface is used for each measurement. This disposable sensor has been developed to
providepolarography on a sfrip for the field analysis of heavy metal ions at the ppb level.

A carbon electrode is first screen printed onto a plastic or ceramic substrate. A thin pinhole-free layer of vapour-polymerised
parylene is then deposited over part of this electrode. An array of -15pm diameter holes is then drilled through this dielectric layer
using an ArF laser and projection mask imaging techniques. The reference electrode (silver or other metals) is then screen printed
onto the dielectric to obtain a disposable PCB type cell that simply plugs into an electronic biasing-readout controller.

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 The properties of this sensor have been characterised using artificial buffer solutions. The fabrication of thc microelectrode m a y
sensor inherently relies on the excimer laser's ability to accurately, reliably and cheaply fabricate disc/interdisc dimensions in a
regular geometric pattern optimised for the particular analytical performance.

4. BIOMEDICAL BLOOD SENSORS

Excimer lasers are currently used to drill a small hole in the sidewall of PVC tubes through which blood is drawn in bilumen
medical catheters that detect with electrical sensors the oxygen content of the blood of prematurely borne babies. In this case the
clean cutting capability of the excimer laser provides the necessary rigidity that prevents kinking and blockage of the tube when
inserted into the child.

In addition, prior to soldering the melallic conducting cores of wires that form an electrical scnsor in this catheter. the plastic
insulation sleeving is cleanly suipped away by a an excimcr laser. The process relies on the threshold for excimer laser ablation of
the polymer being much lower than that for damaging the copper or silver core. Using a fully automated computer-controlled reel
to reel wire-feed system wires with diameters as small as 50pm have been stripped routinely on a production basis. Another
component of this catheter is a blood optical sensor that consists of a 200pm diameter plastic optical fibre with a spiral of up to
six -5Ox15pm rectangular holes machined simultaneously using an ArF laser. Using the fully automated workstation that has
computer controlled rcel to reel hbre feeding and laser firing, this drilling operation has also been in production for the past 2
years. The holes are produced by spatially multiplexing a shapcd excimer lascr beam into 6 smaller bcams and imaging an aperturc
mask onto the fibre. The drilling process is highly reliable. For quality control, CCD cameras coupled to microscopes provide
real-timc in line viewing of the drilling operation and the finished fibre.

5. BIOMEDICAL MESHES
Robust high transmissivity meshes and membranes are of great interest to many a r m in biomedicine. Thin film panicle and
bacterial filters having mesh sizes down to 0 . 5 can
~ be readily fabricated with excimer lasers. Precisely controlled hole sizes can
be produced for calibration and cxact dosimeuy applications. Small holes can also substanually increase the passage of fluid and
oxygen through a film to increase 11s biocompatibility. A mesh array of tapering 8 0 p holes in a thin film of biodegradable
polymer is now fabricated in production on a single shifVday basis using an ArF laser operating at 100Hz.

The successful implementation of excimer laser processing into a product relies not only on the ability to produce a reliable high
quality result, but that such a processing step be cost effective in relation to the final selling price of the component. Applications
of cxcimer lasers to industry are often at the forefront o f research and development in high-tech industries and form part of
sensitive key technologies the details of which are necessarily kept confidential by the companies involvcd. We have outlined
some industrial applications of excimer lasers that arc being used succcssfully by companies. As the potential for excimer laser
processing is realised by industry - particularily in the area of microfabrication, applications will continue to develop rapidly and
often involve the fabrication of entirely new products that could not cven be contemplated by other mechanical, chemical or lascr
fabrication mcthods.

1) M C Gower. 'Excimer lasers: Their current and future upplications to industry and medicine'. Lascr Processing in
Manufacturing. E&. R C Crafer and P J Oakley, Chapman and Hall (1992).
2) F Bachmann. 'Excimer Lasers in a fabrication line for a highly integrated printed circuit board, Chemtronics, Vol 4, 149
(1989)

B 1993The Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Printed and published by the IEE. Savoy Place, London WCPR OBL, UK.

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