Global Alignment Reference Strategy for Laser Interference Lithography Pattern Arrays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a global alignment reference strategy for laser interference lithography, enabling precise, large-area pattern array fabrication by using two reference gratings and alternating beam and substrate movement.

Contribution

The proposed method allows for accurate global alignment of large-area interference lithography pattern arrays using a novel reference strategy with two gratings and dynamic exposure adjustments.

Findings

Successful fabrication of a 3x3 grating array

High continuity of the diffraction wavefront measured

Effective alignment across large substrate regions

Abstract

Large-area gratings play a crucial role in various engineering fields. However, traditional interference lithography is limited by the size of optical component apertures, making large-area fabrication a challenging task. Here, a method for fabricating laser interference lithography pattern arrays with a global alignment reference strategy is proposed. This approach enables alignment of each area of the laser interference lithography pattern arrays, including phase, period, and tilt angle. Two reference gratings are utilized: one is detached from the substrate, while the other remains fixed to it. To achieve global alignment, the exposure area is adjusted by alternating between moving the beam and the substrate. In our experiment, a 3 $\times$ 3 regions grating array was fabricated, and the $-1$st-order diffraction wavefront measured by the Fizeau interferometer exhibited good continuity. This technique enables effective and efficient alignment with high accuracy across any regions in an interference lithography pattern array on large substrates.