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Literature review on preceramic polymer processing by photolithography 1

Literature review on preceramic polymer processing by photolithography

Preceramic polymers are a kind of polymer that can be converted into ceramics by

heat treatment typically above 800 o C (Bernardo et al. 2014, p. 1927). Various methods can

be used to process the preceramic polymer one of which is microcomponent processing using

UV/X-ray lithography (Schulz 2009, p. 454). UV/X-ray lithography is a form of

photolithography using UV or X-rays as a light source to transfer a pattern into a substrate in

the etching process. There is a shortage of comprehensive research on photolithography use

in processing of preceramic polymers with most research focused rather on microfluidic

processing or soft lithography and polymer-derived ceramics (Schulz 2013; Ye et al. 2010;

Schulz et al. 2005).

According to del Campo & Arzt (2008, p. 912), most research in recent decades

focuses on trying to shrink the lateral dimensions of the imaged features. In their research,

they suggested that the current trends were to improve shrinking to at least 45nm by the year

2010 (del Campo and Arzt 2008, p. 912). There is also research done on projection optical

lithography by Rothschild (2005, p. 24) which projected 32nm nodes by 2013. Martnez-

Crespiera et al. (2011, p. 242) did an experiment on the fabrication of SiOC ceramic

microcomponents from a preceramic polymer using photolithography and soft lithography

and found that the former had an advantage of allowing production of microstructures on

substrates(Martnez-Crespiera et al. 2011, p. 248). They also experimented with use of photo-

crosslinking as a procedure to obtain rapid and crack-free infusible polymers to great success.

They were able to achieve ratios as high as 3:1 and micro-sizes in the order of 20m

(Martnez-Crespiera et al. 2011, p. 248).

Conventional photolithography, together with surface machining, is the most

frequently used method to obtain the micrometer-sized surface features needed for sensors
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and actuators (Yang et al. 2001, p.54). However, to remain competitive to traditional

ceramics, preceramic polymers have to be cheap, and thus the fabrication process needs to be

at low cost (Colombo et al. 2010, p. 1808). Therefore, further research on the use of

photolithography is required to make the process even cheaper in the future. Furthermore,

photolithography is here to stay despite numerous advancements in other preceramic polymer

processing techniques (del Campo & Arzt 2008, p. 940).


Literature review on preceramic polymer processing by photolithography 3

Reference list

References

Bernardo, E., Fiocco, L., Parcianello, G., Storti, E. and Colombo, P. 2014, Advanced

Ceramics from Preceramic Polymers Modified at the Nano-Scale: A Review,

Materials, 7(3), pp.1927-1956.

Colombo, P., Mera, G., Riedel, R. and Sorar, G. 2010, Polymer-Derived Ceramics: 40 Years

of Research and Innovation in Advanced Ceramics, Journal of the American Ceramic

Society, 93(7), pp.18051837.

del Campo, A. and Arzt, E. 2008, Fabrication Approaches for Generating Complex Micro-

and Nanopatterns on Polymeric Surface, Chemical Reviews, 108(3), pp.911-945.

Martnez-Crespiera, S., Ionescu, E., Schlosser, M., Flittner, K., Mistura, G., Riedel, R. and

Schlaak, H. 2011, Fabrication of silicon oxy carbide-based microcomponents via

photolithographic and soft lithography approaches, Sensors and Actuators A:

Physical, 169(1), pp.242-249.

Rothschild, M. 2005, Projection optical lithography, Materials Today, 8(2), pp.18-24.

Schulz, M. (2009). Polymer derived ceramics in MEMS/NEMS a review on production

processes and application. Advances in Applied Ceramics, 108(8), pp.454-460.

Schulz, M., Brner, M., Hauelt, J. and Heldele, R. 2005, Polymer derived ceramic

microparts from X-ray lithography-cross-linking behavior and process optimization,

Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 25(2-3), pp.199-204.


Literature review on preceramic polymer processing by photolithography 4

Yang, H., Deschatelets, P., Brittain, S. and Whitesides, G. 2001, Fabrication of High-

Performance Ceramic Microstructures from a Polymeric Precursor Using Soft

Lithography, Advanced Materials, 13(1), pp.54-58.

Ye, C., Chen, A., Colombo, P. and Martinez, C. 2010, Ceramic microparticles and capsules

via microfluidic processing of a preceramic polymer, Journal of The Royal Society

Interface, 7(4), pp.461-473.

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