Pattern transfer for diffractive and refractive microoptics

doi:10.1016/S0167-9317(97)00183-4

Microelectronic Engineering

Volume 34, Issues 3–4, December 1997, Pages 299-319

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-9317(97)00183-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Pattern transfer technologies developed for very large and ultra-large scale integrated (VLSI and ULSI) circuit processing can be adapted to fabricate high fidelity microstructures for planar diffractive and refractive optical elements (DOEs and ROEs). Lithographic, dry-etching, and material deposition techniques used to pattern continuous and stepped microoptical surface relief structures in dielectric, metallic, and semiconductor materials are reviewed. Examples are given of multilevel DOEs, analog refractive lenslet arrays, and subwavelength structures.

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Citation Excerpt :
To maintain η ⩾ 90%, an overlay tolerance of approximately 1% is required. This entails an accuracy of less than 100 nm for NA ⩾ 0.06 (λ = 630 nm), which is beyond the capabilities of most photolithographic equipment available today (±150 to ±300 nm) [3,4]. In order to reduce the constraints mentioned above, we propose a multi-step technology, in which the electron beam is used for both pattern writing and level-to-level alignment.
Optical performance, i.e. the diffraction efficiency, numerical aperture and wave front quality is of great importance for further successful application of diffractive optical elements in a wide range of research and commercial applications. For the fabrication process, simultaneously large numerical aperture and high diffraction efficiency result in a pattern with sub-wavelength resolution and a multi-level phase profile of nanometer accuracy. To fulfill such high requirements, a multi-step fabrication technique is proposed, in which the electron beam is used both for pattern writing and layout alignment. This method enables the fabrication of a structure with the L = 2ⁿ discrete phase levels in n sequential lithographic steps. In each step, the pattern written in a thin, high contrast resist layer is transferred after development into the substrate by reactive ion etching to form the phase profile. In comparison to the multi-mask binary optics technology, the proposed method offers a higher resolution and reduces the alignment errors to insignificant values. On the other hand, in comparison to the direct write analog technique, our approach allows for a much better control of the phase profile and ensures larger process tolerances.
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Excimer laser fabrication of diffractive optical elements
2000, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing
Excimer lasers are well known for their ability to machine features on the micron scale. Recently, they have been used to fabricate diffractive optical elements (DOEs). These elements are patterns of pixels machined to the depth required, in order that a reconstructed pattern is formed in the image plane when the DOE is illuminated by a coherent source. The patterns are designed using computer phase retrieval code. These designs are used to create XY co-ordinate data files for conversion to machining routines where the pixels are machined individually. The laser used is an ArF excimer operating at 193 nm. We describe research undertaken on the fabrication and testing of some typical DOEs. The measurements include efficiency of reconstruction as well as the measurements of profile and surface roughness. The work compares the reconstruction results with the topographical measurements made on the DOE for 2, 4 and 8 phase-level designs. Newly developed simulation code was used to generate reconstructions without machining imperfections.
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Pattern transfer for diffractive and refractive microoptics

Abstract

Laser-chemical three-dimensional writing of multimaterial structures for microelectromechanics

Rapid fabrication of diffractive microlenses using excimer laser ablation

Fabrication of complex micro-optics components using photo-sculpting through halftone transmission masks

App. Opt.

Gray-scale masks for diffractive-optics fabrication: 1. commercial slide imagers

Appl. Opt.

Diffractive optics and micro optics fabricated by high energy beam sensitive (HEBS) glass gray-level mask

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B

Developments in fabrication of binary optical elements

Binary optics: a VLSI-based microoptics technology

Microelectron. Eng.

Binary optics fabrication

LIGA process: sensor construction techniques via X-ray lithography

Phase zone plates for X-rays and the extreme UV

J. Opt. Soc. Am.

Construction and test of phase zone plates for X-ray microscopy

Opt. Lett.

Nanofabrication of zone-late lenses for X-ray microscopy

The design of plasma etchants

Plasma Chem. Plasma Processing

Plasma-assisted etching

Deep three-dimensional microstructures fabrication for IR binary optics

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B

The kinoform: a new wavefront reconstruction device

IBM J. Res. Dev.

Binary Fraunhofer holograms, generated by computer

Appl. Opt.

Computer-generated holograms: techniques and applications

Direct writing of continuous-relief micro-optics

The fabrication of fine lens arrays by laser beam writing

Fabrication of kinoform optical elements

Optik

Appl. Opt.

Blazed gratings and Fresnel lenses fabricated by electron-beam lithography

Opt. Lett.

Phase holograms in PMMA with proximity effect correction

Blazed synthetic phase-only holograms

Optik

Some effects of Fourier-domain phase quantization

IBM J. Res. Dev.

Spectral characteristic of stepped phase gratings

Optik

Binary Optics Technology: The Theory and Design and Multi-level Diffractive Optical Elements

Binary Optics Technology: Theoretical Limits on the Diffraction Efficiency of Multilevel Diffractive Optical Elements

Photolithographic fabrication of thin film lenses

Opt. Commun.

General approaches to mask design for binary optics

Efficient algorithm for encoding and data fracture of electron beam written holograms