Thesis
Micro-LED direct writing and structured illumination in automated photolithography
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T17610
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201973925
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Monolithic micro-Light Emitting Diode (µ-LED) arrays comprising of pixels on the micro-scale is a rapidly developing technology of interest to researchers through their high efficiency and modulation rate. Coupling with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics allows these devices to provide structured illumination via spatio-temporal control. The CMOS drivers control the optical emission pattern of the µ-LED arrays, resulting in a direct writing tool with photo-curing µ-LEDs. Direct writing is an alternative approach to the quartz masks that are commonly used in photolithography. This thesis describes the use of these CMOS controlled µ-LED arrays for mask-less micro-photolithography, using hyperspectral imaging to look simultaneously at multiple markers. This can be done through numerous methods, but it was decided to focus on spectral analysis of the fluorescent markers during the photolithography process, with system instructions tied to the peak fluorescent wavelength. This thesis also reports deep ultraviolet photo-curing with µ-LEDs, with structures down to 7 µm in size, albeit without CMOS control. These demonstrations were possible through the development of an experimental direct writing setup. The setup involved confocal combination of two µ-LED sources and one detection arm. Identification and positioning of fluorescent markers was enabled by active illumination with the µ-LEDs and bespoke post-processing of the time-sequence detected signal. These efforts culminated in the demonstration of writing structures individually aligned with different fluorescent markers on the same substrate, where the markers were all red-emitting and could only be distinguished by resolving their emission spectra. The system that was developed is shown to be capable of curing highly uniform structures with controllable width via direct writing. This is possible thanks to a motorised XYZ stage, controllable alongside the µ-LED array. This technology offers prospects for a range of applications.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Dawson, Martin D.
- Herrnsdorf, Johannes
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Funder
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PDF of thesis T17610 | 2026-02-13 | Public | Download |