The Modern Standard in Lithography
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Product Description
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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
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Product Highlights
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Perfect for Multi-User Facilities
Less than 1h training to fully qualify as a userFast and Accurate Alignment
250 nm front alignment, backside alignment, alignment error compensationFlexible
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 substratesLow Operation Costs and Easy Maintenance
10-20 years of laser lifetimeDirect-Write Lithography
No mask-related costs, effort, or security risksGrayscale Mode
For simple 2.5D structuresExposure Quality
Edge roughness 60 nm; CD uniformity 100 nm; autofocus compensation for warped/corrugated substratesMinimum Feature Size
Two different write modes available with a minimum feature size down to 0.45 μmUser-Friendly
Specifically designed software and workflow make the tool operation fast and easyExposure Speed
150 mm wafer in <16 min with 405 nm laser -
Available Modules
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Exposure Wavelength
Diode laser sources at 375 nm and/or 405 nm can be mounted together and used interchangeably to expose different photoresistsExchangeable Chucks
Additional vacuum chucks for challenging samples like small substrates, foils, or warped substrates
Customized vacuum chuck layout upon requestDraw 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 exposureAutofocus
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 requestAdvanced 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
Fast and Accurate Alignment
Flexible
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
Direct-Write Lithography
Grayscale Mode
Exposure Quality
Minimum Feature Size
User-Friendly
Exposure Speed
Exposure Wavelength
Exchangeable Chucks
Customized vacuum chuck layout upon request
Draw Mode
Autofocus
Variable Substrate Sizes
Advanced Field Alignment
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 * | |
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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] | 500 | 500 |
Local 2nd layer alignment [nm] | 250 | 250 |
Backside alignment [nm] | 1000 | 1000 |
Exposure time 405 nm laser for 4″ wafer [min] | 35 | 9 |
Exposure time 375 nm laser for 4″ wafer [min] | 35 | 20 |
Max. write speed 405 nm laser [mm²/min] | 285 | 1100 |
Max. write speed 375 nm laser [mm²/min] | 285 | 500 |
System features | |
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Light source | Diode lasers: 8 W at 405 nm, 2.8 W at 375 nm, or both |
Substrate sizes | Variable: 3 x 3 mm² to 6″ x 6″ | Optional: 8″ x 8″ Customizable on request |
Substrate thickness | 0 - 12 mm |
Maximum exposure area | 150 x 150 mm² | Optional: 200 x 200 mm² |
Temperature controlled flow box | Temperature stability ± 0.1 °C |
Real-time autofocus | Air-gauge or optical |
Autofocus compensation range | 180 μm |
Grayscale | 128 gray levels |
Software features | Exposure wizard, resist database, automatic labeling and serialization, Draw Mode for CADless exposures, substrate tracking / history |
System dimensions (lithography unit) | |
Height × width × depth | 1950 mm × 1300 mm × 1300 mm |
Weight | 1100 kg |
Installation requirements | |
Electrical | 230 VAC ± 5%, 50/60 Hz, 16 A |
Compressed air | 6 - 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.