Pellicle Support Frame Venting for Flat Substrate Bonding
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing pellicle support frames cause strain in the transparent substrate during the photolithographic process, leading to deviations in the circuit pattern transfer, due to resilience that deforms the support frame and allows foreign substances to enter the hollow portions.
Innovation Solution
A pellicle support frame with a frame body made of aluminum alloy, featuring a plurality of hollow portions and a through-hole between adjacent hollow portions, which reduces rigidity and resilience, preventing deformation and foreign substance entry, while allowing the frame to maintain a flat shape and prevent pressure differences in a vacuum environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the support frame is made rigid to maintain structural stability, then the frame can support the pellicle film and transparent substrate, but strain and deformation occur in the frame and substrate due to resilience, causing circuit pattern deviation
Solution Approach 1:
The support frame is divided into multiple hollow portions (first, second, third hollow portions) within its structure. This segmentation reduces the overall rigidity and resilience of the frame, allowing it to maintain structural stability while minimizing deformation and strain that would otherwise cause circuit pattern deviation during photolithography processes.
2Manufacturing precision
If hollow portions are provided in the support frame to reduce rigidity and resilience, then strain and deformation are reduced, but foreign substances such as dust may enter the hollow portions
Solution Approach 1:
Through-holes are provided in the support frame to extract and equalize pressure between the interior and exterior spaces. This prevents pressure differences that would otherwise cause deformation, while the hollow portions remain sealed to exclude foreign substances. The through-holes allow pressure equalization without compromising the protective function of the hollow structure.
3Shape
If the support frame is pressed against the transparent substrate to achieve flat bonding, then the frame follows the substrate shape, but resilience causes the frame to return to its strained shape, creating strain in the substrate
Solution Approach 1:
The support frame incorporates multiple hollow portions that reduce its overall rigidity and resilience. This allows the frame to be pressed flat against the transparent substrate during bonding without generating excessive resilient force that would cause the frame to return to its strained shape and create substrate deformation or circuit pattern deviation.
4Manufacturing precision
If a vacuum environment is created for pellicle film and substrate bonding, then bonding precision is improved, but pressure difference between inner and outer spaces of the frame causes deformation
Solution Approach 1:
Through-holes are provided in the support frame to extract and equalize pressure between the interior and exterior spaces during vacuum bonding processes. This prevents pressure differences that would cause frame deformation, allowing the pellicle film and substrate to be bonded with high precision while maintaining frame structural integrity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The reduced rigidity and resilience of the support frame ensure accurate transfer of circuit patterns by maintaining a flat shape, preventing foreign substance entry and pressure differences, thus enhancing the precision of pattern transfer and maintaining a clean environment.
Implementation Method 1
The hollow portions formed in the support frame allow rigidity of the support frame to be decreased. This allows resilience to become small, the resilience functioning to return the support frame to its former strained shape after the support frame is bonded to a flat transparent substrate
Implementation Method 2
the through-hole is formed in the frame body, thus making it possible to prevent a difference in pressure from being generated between the inner space and the external space of the support frame in a vacuum after the pellicle film and the transparent substrate are bonded to the support frame
Data Source
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AI summary
A pellicle support frame (1A) is provided with a frame body (10) made of aluminum alloy and has a pellicle film bonded to the upper surface (10a) of the frame body (10) and a transparent substrate bonded to the lower surface of the frame body (10). Within the frame body (10), a plurality of hollow portions (51-53) are provided to be lined up in the circumferential direction of the frame body (10), and a through-hole (20) which leads from the outer peripheral surface (10c) to the inner peripheral surface (10d) of the frame body (10) is formed between two adjacent hollow portions. This configuration makes it possible to prevent strain from arising in the support frame (1A) and the transparent substrate after the support frame (1A) is bonded to the transparent substrate.