Concept Of Buried Mask And Its Realisation

A new method for fabricating photomasks is proposed. The mask is prepared by burying the absorbent patterns inside the transparent photoplate instead of depositing them on the surface of the photoplate. After imaging and etching trenches into the glass substrate, an absorbent material is set into them. Two different ways of filling in these holes are considered: planarisation and lift-off. Various advantages of this technique are expected, namely high resolution. This paper presents results obtained by vacuum contact printing of positive and negative novolak based photoresists exposed through buried masks.