MLA 150 Maskless Aligner

The Modern Standard in Lithography

  • Product Description

  • Are you slowed down by the high costs and long lead times of photomasks? Do you want to iterate designs instantly without the lengthy training required for traditional mask aligners?

    Discover the MLA 150 and the world of digital lithography.

    The modern, maskless aligner replaces legacy technology with a fast, flexible, and remarkably easy-to-use solution engineered for the highest degree of performance. By using a digital mirror device (DMD) as a dynamic mask, the MLA 150 overcomes the drawbacks of physical photomasks. Go from a digital design to a perfectly patterned substrate in minutes, empowering your users to accelerate research in fields like quantum devices, MEMS, micro-optics, and life sciences.

    Why the MLA 150 is the Ideal Choice for Your Lab

    The MLA 150 was designed from the ground up to solve the core challenges of academic and industrial R&D facilities. It directly addresses issues like long lead times for photomasks, high recurring costs, and the steep learning curve of traditional systems.

    Engineered for the Multi-User Facility

    Reduce your training overhead and maximize tool uptime. The MLA 150 is so intuitive that new users can be fully qualified to work independently in less than one hour. Its user-friendly software and streamlined workflow are perfectly suited for a shared lab environment, which is why the MLA 150 has become an essential tool in leading cleanrooms worldwide.

    Unmatched Flexibility for Advanced Research

    Your research isn’t standard, and your lithography tool shouldn’t be either. The MLA 150 adapts to your experiment, not the other way around.

    • Handle a Broad Range of Resists: Install one or two different laser wavelengths (375 nm and/or 405 nm) simultaneously to expose the entire range of broadband, g-, h-, and i-line photoresists without hardware changes.
    • Work with Challenging Substrates: Specialized vacuum chucks allow you to easily handle difficult samples, including small substrate pieces down to 3×3 mm², thin foils, and warped wafers.
    • Create 2.5D and High-Aspect-Ratio Structures: Use the integrated Grayscale Exposure Mode to fabricate complex 2.5D microstructures, or the High-Aspect-Ratio Mode to pattern thick resists with steep sidewalls, ideal for MEMS and microfluidics.
    • Interactive ‘Draw Mode’: Directly draw and expose patterns onto the live camera image of your sample—perfect for quick prototyping or precisely placing electrodes onto unique features like graphene flakes or nanowires.

    High Speed, High Precision, No Compromises

    User-friendly doesn’t mean lower performance. The MLA 150 delivers the speed and accuracy you need to push the boundaries of fabrication.

    • Sub-Micron Resolution: Achieve a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm to create complex, high-resolution devices.
    • Outstanding Throughput: Expose a full 150 mm wafer in less than 16 minutes.
    • Advanced Automated Alignment: The system achieves 250 nm alignment accuracy and digitally compensates for offset, rotation, scaling, and shearing—adjustments impossible with physical masks.
    • Perfect Focus: A dynamic autofocus system ensures sharp, uniform features, effectively handling patterned, warped, or delicate substrates.
    • Ultimate Stability: An integrated environmental chamber with temperature-controlled laminar airflow (±0.1°C) minimizes thermal expansion effects, ensuring stable and repeatable results.

    Drastically Reduce Your Operating Costs

    Eliminate the largest and most persistent expense in lithography: the photomask. With the MLA 150, there are no mask procurement costs and no associated multi-week lead times. You also eliminate cleaning and storage efforts and remove the risk of costly breakage. Combined with a laser lifetime of 10-20 years and easy maintenance, the MLA 150 offers an exceptionally low total cost of ownership.

    Key Applications

    From fundamental physics to applied biosciences, the MLA 150 is the trusted tool for:

    • Nanofabrication: Quantum devices, 2D materials, semiconductor nanowires
    • MEMS & MOEMS: Sensors, actuators, micro-optical elements, microfluidics
    • Materials Science: Patterning of novel materials
    • Life Sciences: Lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors

    Join Hundreds of Leading Institutions

    See why top universities and research centers worldwide have chosen the MLA 150 to replace their mask aligners. Contact us to discover how to empower your users and modernize your lab.

    Are you slowed down by the high costs and long lead times of photomasks? Do you want to iterate designs instantly without the lengthy training required for traditional mask aligners?

    Discover the MLA 150 and the world of digital lithography.

    The modern, maskless aligner replaces legacy technology with a fast, flexible, and remarkably easy-to-use solution engineered for the highest degree of performance. By using a digital mirror device (DMD) as a dynamic mask, the MLA 150 overcomes the drawbacks of physical photomasks. Go from a digital design to a perfectly patterned substrate in minutes, empowering your users to accelerate research in fields like quantum devices, MEMS, micro-optics, and life sciences.

    Why the MLA 150 is the Ideal Choice for Your Lab

    The MLA 150 was designed from the ground up to solve the core challenges of academic and industrial R&D facilities. It directly addresses issues like long lead times for photomasks, high recurring costs, and the steep learning curve of traditional systems.

    Engineered for the Multi-User Facility

    Reduce your training overhead and maximize tool uptime. The MLA 150 is so intuitive that new users can be fully qualified to work independently in less than one hour. Its user-friendly software and streamlined workflow are perfectly suited for a shared lab environment, which is why the MLA 150 has become an essential tool in leading cleanrooms worldwide.

    Unmatched Flexibility for Advanced Research

    Your research isn’t standard, and your lithography tool shouldn’t be either. The MLA 150 adapts to your experiment, not the other way around.

    • Handle a Broad Range of Resists: Install one or two different laser wavelengths (375 nm and/or 405 nm) simultaneously to expose the entire range of broadband, g-, h-, and i-line photoresists without hardware changes.
    • Work with Challenging Substrates: Specialized vacuum chucks allow you to easily handle difficult samples, including small substrate pieces down to 3×3 mm², thin foils, and warped wafers.
    • Create 2.5D and High-Aspect-Ratio Structures: Use the integrated Grayscale Exposure Mode to fabricate complex 2.5D microstructures, or the High-Aspect-Ratio Mode to pattern thick resists with steep sidewalls, ideal for MEMS and microfluidics.
    • Interactive ‘Draw Mode’: Directly draw and expose patterns onto the live camera image of your sample—perfect for quick prototyping or precisely placing electrodes onto unique features like graphene flakes or nanowires.

    High Speed, High Precision, No Compromises

    User-friendly doesn’t mean lower performance. The MLA 150 delivers the speed and accuracy you need to push the boundaries of fabrication.

    • Sub-Micron Resolution: Achieve a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm to create complex, high-resolution devices.
    • Outstanding Throughput: Expose a full 150 mm wafer in less than 16 minutes.
    • Advanced Automated Alignment: The system achieves 250 nm alignment accuracy and digitally compensates for offset, rotation, scaling, and shearing—adjustments impossible with physical masks.
    • Perfect Focus: A dynamic autofocus system ensures sharp, uniform features, effectively handling patterned, warped, or delicate substrates.
    • Ultimate Stability: An integrated environmental chamber with temperature-controlled laminar airflow (±0.1°C) minimizes thermal expansion effects, ensuring stable and repeatable results.

    Drastically Reduce Your Operating Costs

    Eliminate the largest and most persistent expense in lithography: the photomask. With the MLA 150, there are no mask procurement costs and no associated multi-week lead times. You also eliminate cleaning and storage efforts and remove the risk of costly breakage. Combined with a laser lifetime of 10-20 years and easy maintenance, the MLA 150 offers an exceptionally low total cost of ownership.

    Key Applications

    From fundamental physics to applied biosciences, the MLA 150 is the trusted tool for:

    • Nanofabrication: Quantum devices, 2D materials, semiconductor nanowires
    • MEMS & MOEMS: Sensors, actuators, micro-optical elements, microfluidics
    • Materials Science: Patterning of novel materials
    • Life Sciences: Lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors

    Join Hundreds of Leading Institutions

    See why top universities and research centers worldwide have chosen the MLA 150 to replace their mask aligners. Contact us to discover how to empower your users and modernize your lab.

    > 250 installed systems

  • Product Highlights

  • Perfect for Multi-User Facilities

    Less than 1h training to fully qualify as a user

    Fast and Accurate Alignment

    250 nm front alignment, backside alignment, alignment error compensation

    Flexible

    Two lasers can be installed simultaneously on the same system to expose the whole range of photoresist
    Different exposure modes available for fast or high-quality structuring
    Additional vacuum chucks for challenging samples like small substrates, foils, or warped substrates

    Low Operation Costs and Easy Maintenance

    10-20 years of laser lifetime

    Direct-Write Lithography

    No mask-related costs, effort, or security risks

    Grayscale Mode

    For simple 2.5D structures

    Exposure Quality

    Edge roughness 60 nm; CD uniformity 100 nm; autofocus compensation for warped/corrugated substrates

    Minimum Feature Size

    Two different write modes available with a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm

    User-Friendly

    Specifically designed software and workflow make the tool operation fast and easy

    Exposure Speed

    150 mm wafer in <16 min with 405 nm laser
  • Available Modules

  • Exposure Wavelength

    Diode laser sources at 375 nm and/or 405 nm can be mounted together and used interchangeably to expose different photoresists

    Exchangeable Chucks

    Additional vacuum chucks for challenging samples like small substrates, foils, or warped substrates
    Customized vacuum chuck layout upon request

    Draw Mode

    Import and overlay of BMP files on top of the real-time microscope image – as in a virtual mask aligner; simple lines and shapes can be drawn into the real-time camera image for immediate exposure

    Autofocus

    Air-gauge or optical autofocus for perfect exposure of small samples (less than 10 mm)

    Variable Substrate Sizes

    From 3 mm to 6”; up to 8” upon request

    Advanced Field Alignment

    Automatic field-by-field alignment on individual dies on the wafer for superior alignment accuracy

Are you slowed down by the high costs and long lead times of photomasks? Do you want to iterate designs instantly without the lengthy training required for traditional mask aligners?

Discover the MLA 150 and the world of digital lithography.

The modern, maskless aligner replaces legacy technology with a fast, flexible, and remarkably easy-to-use solution engineered for the highest degree of performance. By using a digital mirror device (DMD) as a dynamic mask, the MLA 150 overcomes the drawbacks of physical photomasks. Go from a digital design to a perfectly patterned substrate in minutes, empowering your users to accelerate research in fields like quantum devices, MEMS, micro-optics, and life sciences.

Why the MLA 150 is the Ideal Choice for Your Lab

The MLA 150 was designed from the ground up to solve the core challenges of academic and industrial R&D facilities. It directly addresses issues like long lead times for photomasks, high recurring costs, and the steep learning curve of traditional systems.

Engineered for the Multi-User Facility

Reduce your training overhead and maximize tool uptime. The MLA 150 is so intuitive that new users can be fully qualified to work independently in less than one hour. Its user-friendly software and streamlined workflow are perfectly suited for a shared lab environment, which is why the MLA 150 has become an essential tool in leading cleanrooms worldwide.

Unmatched Flexibility for Advanced Research

Your research isn’t standard, and your lithography tool shouldn’t be either. The MLA 150 adapts to your experiment, not the other way around.

  • Handle a Broad Range of Resists: Install one or two different laser wavelengths (375 nm and/or 405 nm) simultaneously to expose the entire range of broadband, g-, h-, and i-line photoresists without hardware changes.
  • Work with Challenging Substrates: Specialized vacuum chucks allow you to easily handle difficult samples, including small substrate pieces down to 3×3 mm², thin foils, and warped wafers.
  • Create 2.5D and High-Aspect-Ratio Structures: Use the integrated Grayscale Exposure Mode to fabricate complex 2.5D microstructures, or the High-Aspect-Ratio Mode to pattern thick resists with steep sidewalls, ideal for MEMS and microfluidics.
  • Interactive ‘Draw Mode’: Directly draw and expose patterns onto the live camera image of your sample—perfect for quick prototyping or precisely placing electrodes onto unique features like graphene flakes or nanowires.

High Speed, High Precision, No Compromises

User-friendly doesn’t mean lower performance. The MLA 150 delivers the speed and accuracy you need to push the boundaries of fabrication.

  • Sub-Micron Resolution: Achieve a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm to create complex, high-resolution devices.
  • Outstanding Throughput: Expose a full 150 mm wafer in less than 16 minutes.
  • Advanced Automated Alignment: The system achieves 250 nm alignment accuracy and digitally compensates for offset, rotation, scaling, and shearing—adjustments impossible with physical masks.
  • Perfect Focus: A dynamic autofocus system ensures sharp, uniform features, effectively handling patterned, warped, or delicate substrates.
  • Ultimate Stability: An integrated environmental chamber with temperature-controlled laminar airflow (±0.1°C) minimizes thermal expansion effects, ensuring stable and repeatable results.

Drastically Reduce Your Operating Costs

Eliminate the largest and most persistent expense in lithography: the photomask. With the MLA 150, there are no mask procurement costs and no associated multi-week lead times. You also eliminate cleaning and storage efforts and remove the risk of costly breakage. Combined with a laser lifetime of 10-20 years and easy maintenance, the MLA 150 offers an exceptionally low total cost of ownership.

Key Applications

From fundamental physics to applied biosciences, the MLA 150 is the trusted tool for:

  • Nanofabrication: Quantum devices, 2D materials, semiconductor nanowires
  • MEMS & MOEMS: Sensors, actuators, micro-optical elements, microfluidics
  • Materials Science: Patterning of novel materials
  • Life Sciences: Lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors

Join Hundreds of Leading Institutions

See why top universities and research centers worldwide have chosen the MLA 150 to replace their mask aligners. Contact us to discover how to empower your users and modernize your lab.

Are you slowed down by the high costs and long lead times of photomasks? Do you want to iterate designs instantly without the lengthy training required for traditional mask aligners?

Discover the MLA 150 and the world of digital lithography.

The modern, maskless aligner replaces legacy technology with a fast, flexible, and remarkably easy-to-use solution engineered for the highest degree of performance. By using a digital mirror device (DMD) as a dynamic mask, the MLA 150 overcomes the drawbacks of physical photomasks. Go from a digital design to a perfectly patterned substrate in minutes, empowering your users to accelerate research in fields like quantum devices, MEMS, micro-optics, and life sciences.

Why the MLA 150 is the Ideal Choice for Your Lab

The MLA 150 was designed from the ground up to solve the core challenges of academic and industrial R&D facilities. It directly addresses issues like long lead times for photomasks, high recurring costs, and the steep learning curve of traditional systems.

Engineered for the Multi-User Facility

Reduce your training overhead and maximize tool uptime. The MLA 150 is so intuitive that new users can be fully qualified to work independently in less than one hour. Its user-friendly software and streamlined workflow are perfectly suited for a shared lab environment, which is why the MLA 150 has become an essential tool in leading cleanrooms worldwide.

Unmatched Flexibility for Advanced Research

Your research isn’t standard, and your lithography tool shouldn’t be either. The MLA 150 adapts to your experiment, not the other way around.

  • Handle a Broad Range of Resists: Install one or two different laser wavelengths (375 nm and/or 405 nm) simultaneously to expose the entire range of broadband, g-, h-, and i-line photoresists without hardware changes.
  • Work with Challenging Substrates: Specialized vacuum chucks allow you to easily handle difficult samples, including small substrate pieces down to 3×3 mm², thin foils, and warped wafers.
  • Create 2.5D and High-Aspect-Ratio Structures: Use the integrated Grayscale Exposure Mode to fabricate complex 2.5D microstructures, or the High-Aspect-Ratio Mode to pattern thick resists with steep sidewalls, ideal for MEMS and microfluidics.
  • Interactive ‘Draw Mode’: Directly draw and expose patterns onto the live camera image of your sample—perfect for quick prototyping or precisely placing electrodes onto unique features like graphene flakes or nanowires.

High Speed, High Precision, No Compromises

User-friendly doesn’t mean lower performance. The MLA 150 delivers the speed and accuracy you need to push the boundaries of fabrication.

  • Sub-Micron Resolution: Achieve a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm to create complex, high-resolution devices.
  • Outstanding Throughput: Expose a full 150 mm wafer in less than 16 minutes.
  • Advanced Automated Alignment: The system achieves 250 nm alignment accuracy and digitally compensates for offset, rotation, scaling, and shearing—adjustments impossible with physical masks.
  • Perfect Focus: A dynamic autofocus system ensures sharp, uniform features, effectively handling patterned, warped, or delicate substrates.
  • Ultimate Stability: An integrated environmental chamber with temperature-controlled laminar airflow (±0.1°C) minimizes thermal expansion effects, ensuring stable and repeatable results.

Drastically Reduce Your Operating Costs

Eliminate the largest and most persistent expense in lithography: the photomask. With the MLA 150, there are no mask procurement costs and no associated multi-week lead times. You also eliminate cleaning and storage efforts and remove the risk of costly breakage. Combined with a laser lifetime of 10-20 years and easy maintenance, the MLA 150 offers an exceptionally low total cost of ownership.

Key Applications

From fundamental physics to applied biosciences, the MLA 150 is the trusted tool for:

  • Nanofabrication: Quantum devices, 2D materials, semiconductor nanowires
  • MEMS & MOEMS: Sensors, actuators, micro-optical elements, microfluidics
  • Materials Science: Patterning of novel materials
  • Life Sciences: Lab-on-a-chip devices, biosensors

Join Hundreds of Leading Institutions

See why top universities and research centers worldwide have chosen the MLA 150 to replace their mask aligners. Contact us to discover how to empower your users and modernize your lab.

> 250 installed systems

Perfect for Multi-User Facilities

Less than 1h training to fully qualify as a user

Fast and Accurate Alignment

250 nm front alignment, backside alignment, alignment error compensation

Flexible

Two lasers can be installed simultaneously on the same system to expose the whole range of photoresist
Different exposure modes available for fast or high-quality structuring
Additional vacuum chucks for challenging samples like small substrates, foils, or warped substrates

Low Operation Costs and Easy Maintenance

10-20 years of laser lifetime

Direct-Write Lithography

No mask-related costs, effort, or security risks

Grayscale Mode

For simple 2.5D structures

Exposure Quality

Edge roughness 60 nm; CD uniformity 100 nm; autofocus compensation for warped/corrugated substrates

Minimum Feature Size

Two different write modes available with a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μm

User-Friendly

Specifically designed software and workflow make the tool operation fast and easy

Exposure Speed

150 mm wafer in <16 min with 405 nm laser

Exposure Wavelength

Diode laser sources at 375 nm and/or 405 nm can be mounted together and used interchangeably to expose different photoresists

Exchangeable Chucks

Additional vacuum chucks for challenging samples like small substrates, foils, or warped substrates
Customized vacuum chuck layout upon request

Draw Mode

Import and overlay of BMP files on top of the real-time microscope image – as in a virtual mask aligner; simple lines and shapes can be drawn into the real-time camera image for immediate exposure

Autofocus

Air-gauge or optical autofocus for perfect exposure of small samples (less than 10 mm)

Variable Substrate Sizes

From 3 mm to 6”; up to 8” upon request

Advanced Field Alignment

Automatic field-by-field alignment on individual dies on the wafer for superior alignment accuracy

Customer applications

Why customers choose our systems

"The MLA 150 is a very good compromise between flexibility, throughput, and performance. In our multiuser facilities, it is highly appreciated for fast prototyping on substrates of various dimensions and shapes. Because the acquisition of the MLA 150 has been a game changer in our lithography department we decided to get a second one."

Dr. Philippe Flückiger, Director of Operations
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMi)
Lausanne, Switzerland

"At DTU Nanolab, part of the technical university of Denmark, we now have multiple maskless aligners from Heidelberg instruments. These tools fit our research-based operation perfectly, while also providing versatile tools for many of our industrial customers. One specific observation we made since we got our maskless aligners was a significant drop in the number of new masks ordered for our mask aligners, which dropped from about 1 mask per day to about 1 mask per month. Overall, we are very happy with our maskless aligners, both from the personnel side and the user side."

Jens H. Hemmigsen, Process Specialist
DTU Nanolab (Technical University of Denmark)
Lyngby, Denmark

"The MLA 150 direct laser writer, with its ease-of-use and versatility, is the ideal photolithography equipment. Since photomasks are no longer required to expose the wafer, the MLA 150 has helped to dramatically reduce the time & costs associated to the development and research on prototypes that require frequent changes in the layout."

Dr. Julien Dorsaz, Senior Photolithography Engineer
EPFL (CMi)
Lausanne, Switzerland

Technical Data

Write Mode I *Write Mode II *
Writing performance
Minimum feature size [μm]0.6 (0.45 optional)1
Minimum Lines and Spaces [μm]0.8 (0.45 optional)1.2
Global 2nd layer alignment [nm]500500
Local 2nd layer alignment [nm] 250250
Backside alignment [nm]10001000
Exposure time 405 nm laser for 4″ wafer [min]359
Exposure time 375 nm laser for 4″ wafer [min]3520
Max. write speed 405 nm laser [mm²/min] 2851100
Max. write speed 375 nm laser [mm²/min] 285500
System features
Light sourceDiode lasers: 8 W at 405 nm, 2.8 W at 375 nm, or both
Substrate sizesVariable: 3 x 3 mm² to 6″ x 6″ | Optional: 8″ x 8″ Customizable on request
Substrate thickness0 - 12 mm
Maximum exposure area150 x 150 mm² | Optional: 200 x 200 mm²
Temperature controlled flow boxTemperature stability ± 0.1 °C
Real-time autofocusAir-gauge or optical
Autofocus compensation range180 μm
Grayscale128 gray levels
Software featuresExposure wizard, resist database, automatic labeling and serialization, Draw Mode for CADless exposures, substrate tracking / history
System dimensions (lithography unit)
Height × width × depth1950 mm × 1300 mm × 1300 mm
Weight1100 kg
Installation requirements
Electrical230 VAC ± 5%, 50/60 Hz, 16 A
Compressed air6 - 10 bar
Economical considerations
Saves on the cost of photomasks
Low running costs for maintenance, energy consumption, spare parts
Solid state laser light sources with lifetime of several years
* Only one write mode can be installed on the system

Please note
Specifications depend on individual process conditions and may vary according to equipment configuration. Write speed depends on pixel size and write mode. Design and specifications are subject to change without prior notice.

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