A new flexible hybrid mask for contact exposure and its fabrication

According to the exposure pattern distortion in contact printing caused by the photoresist and sometimes has a rough surface with impurity particles on it, we propose a new flexible hybrid mask for contact printing. The mask consists of three layers: a flexible polymer buffer layer, a polymer structure layer of high Young's modulus, and a metal masking layer. Because the hybrid mask skillfully combines the characteristics of flexible polymer and high Young's modulus polymer, it has two advantages: high flexibility and high resolution. The flexible hybrid mask can attach closely with the photoresist under the condition of vacuum adsorption. So the fabrication of micro-nano structures with high precision and high resolution can be realized. In this paper, a new flexible hybrid mask with critical dimension of 2um was fabricated. The photoresist structure with high precision was manufactured using this mask by photolithography and it verified the feasibility of the mask for lithography.