Writing in Titanium on Glass - Lift-Off Photolithography

[@Kyle_0701]

I guess Ben (applied science) set the bar quite high. But don't feel bad, your content is top tier too (based on my years of experience binge watching science video).

[@flomojo2u]

I ran into the same issue of expensive sputtering targets, so I bought an inexpensive manual metal rolling machine. It allows you to create thin, uniform sheets of metal out of anything that's fairly malleable: copper, tin, gold, platinum, silver, etc. Some metals may need to be annealed periodically with a torch since they work-harden, but it's surprising just how many different metals can be rolled. Since sputtering removes such a microscopic amount of metal, you don't need a thick target, and you can glue it to a thicker piece of metal to aid in mounting it in your sputtering system.

[@zinckensteel]

"If you want to feel bad, you can always compare yourself to AppliedScience" - I agree a little too hard.

[@frstwhsprs]

I don't get the joke.

[@Yezpahr]

That transition to the sponsor read was perfect.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Laser printing onto tracing paper works pretty well for photomasks - use heavy (>90gsm) tracing paper to avoid crinkling in the fuser, and set the printer DPI as high as possible. I don't know if it's still easily available or if the process is now obsolete, but you used to be able to get super high-res transparencies (>1200dpi) from a print shop that has a phototypesetter. Some older PCB fabs also use photoplots onto a clear film. Photographic film might be another option but I don't know how well it transmits UV.

[@mvadu]

We used to use the transfer paper printed with laser printer and a iron to transfer the toner onto pcb. I don't see why that method can't be used here.. Skip the lithography altogether

[@alex13902]

Lithography and photomask are far more repeatable than toner transfer.

[@etelmo]

To get the best density with toner+velum I explored using heat transfer foils which have essentially 0% transmission, but this was for larger feature sizes and I'm not sure how well it scales down. It made for very pretty metallic masks though.

[@mbainrot]

I've done some experimentation with black and white film when I was doing my cyanotyping course and I did find /some/ uv transmissibility but it seems that a decent chunk of the optic chain that I used (which was a reversed camera lens) even without UV filter absorbs a lot of the UV, not that my UV source was very strong. It's been on my todo list to revisit (preferably before the remainder of my film expires) thou it is also on my todo list have a go at using a resin printer to expose the UV resist. I haven't tried it with my B/W enlarger because it uses white styrofoam as a diffuser/reflector so the losses would be off the charts

[@faxezu]

I work in a semiconductor research lab, if we need to make a one off wafer with something really "big" like a photo in gold on a wafer we use transparency sheets for overhead projectors, they are available for laser printers. Print on a black and white laser printer with the highest density and you get something quick but not the greatest resolution.

[@paulroberto2286]

Missed opportunity to put the bee movie script onto the glass slide 😂 Jokes aside, awesome video!

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Haha, true. Or the Shrek script. Thanks!

[@christiannorf1680]

Getting copyright striked with style! (and science)

[@rubenprovencio-b1u]

Que papel usaste para las mascaras

[@Bllinker]

Maybe you could use a mono LCD, like in MSLA resin 3d printers? Human hairs are about 80µm, 2k 5.5 inch LCDs have a pixel size of about 47µm and 4k 6.23" means a 35µm pixel size. You can get them with drivers *relatively* cheaply.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Yes, that is one of the methods I will try in the future :)

[@jackalovski1]

Some more advanced and older type resin printers used a UV laser, I wonder if using something like this and turning the laser power down might work better. Because using a laser is more like plotting a vector than using pixels.

[@thoughtstream9591]

The laser based printers were called SLA. They could produce better curves because there are no pixels, but they are slower than DLP printers that have taken over.

[@bazzatron9482]

​@@thoughtstream9591the mainstream printers are actually "Masked Stereo LithogrAphy" (yeah, no idea why they chose the A either...) or "MSLA" and not "DLP". DLP is a slightly different technology where a projector shines an image onto a mirror, which exposes the layer on the vat. MSLA uses a mask to selectively expose a layer. The technologies are very similar, because a projector is basically a light source with a masking element - but I guess when it comes to patent laws, these things matter...! 😅

[@Bllinker]

Yeah, (non-mask)SLA would be pretty interesting too, especially since for a single 'layer' the longer exposure time isn't a problem, but getting a galvo stage with a laser would probably cost quite a lot. Then again, some may be available for a reasonable price on the used market or a DIY one could be made, but that's a whole other project.

[@xxportalxx.]

Something to test: a lot of photo machines use a thin layer of fluid (generally di) between the mask (reticle) and wafer, this helps with focusing. Easy enough to test in your setup if this gives better results.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

I didn’t know that. Thanks for the information!

[@xxportalxx.]

@AdvancedTinkering yeah, honestly I'm not sure if it will help here tho, it's used near the diffraction limit to reduce fringe interference effects iirc. However it does help with focusing, so I still think it's worth a test haha.

[@xxportalxx.]

@AdvancedTinkering yeah, honestly I'm not sure if it will help here tho, it's used near the diffraction limit to reduce fringe interference effects iirc. However it does help with focusing, so I still think it's worth a test haha.

[@MekazaBitrusty]

What is this di?

[@faxezu]

​@@MekazaBitrustyDeionized water.

[@SignalDitch]

"If you want to feel bad, you can always compare yourself to Applied Science" Ain't that the truth, haha Also, the idea of ol' Liz's face on that silver coin being converted to hot plasma is very funny to me

[@Kermal111]

Try looking for CTF masks at small print shops, I can get them for just a few bucks at 4000+ dpi resolution, optical density of 4 and very crisp lines. That's what PCB fabs typically use

[@AdvancedTinkering]

I never heard of CTF masks and couldn’t find a lot on google. What does “CTF” stand for? But I will look into it, thanks!

[@Kermal111]

@@AdvancedTinkering Computer-to-film, it's a type of a printing process, still popular for screen printing t-shirts and art I think. Masks look like laser printed transparencies except they are much blacker and higher quality. If you really can't find them I can mail you some test patterns I was about to throw out

[@dkaaakd]

Another way to obtain optically dense masks is to use computer-to-film services (for offset printing); while it is not the most advanced technology, they still do it. Some places accept input as 1-bit tiff files (in spatial resolution of imagesetter), and in that case you can obtain masks with resolution significantly better than a printer.

[@almosthuman4457]

Thank you for sharing your learning adventure with us. The day we stop learning is the day we start dying!

[@amogusenjoyer]

Woah, the resist under UV light at 9:01 glows! That's cool, I wonder why it's mostly at the edges Also, it's nice to see you using items from multiple previous videos to make this happen!

[@xxportalxx.]

Nice catch! My interpretation: the resist reacts to uv, meaning necessarily something within it is ionized at those wavelengths, that ionization leads to crosslinking (negative resist) or bond breaking (positive resist), from there one of two things must be happening: either the chemical change only requires part of the photons energy and the rest is lost as a photon at a higher wavelength, or once the chemical change has occurred the energy cannot be fully absorbed and the electron releases what isn't converted to heat as a photon. These lead to phosphorescence. The higher amplitude at the edges I'd guess is due to the different surfaces refracting the light and channeling it to the edges, similar to a fiber optic cable.

[@Si-Al-Ti]

This is my guess (sorry for my messy English): The UV light passes through the film and enters the glass, and some of it undergoes total internal reflection (TIR) within the slide. The light bounces off the inner surfaces, traveling inside along the whole width of the glass. It eventually reaches the edges, where it can escape. The effect is more pronounced along the sides because of this, as the light interacts more this way with the glass triggering fluorescence more noticeably than on the flat surfaces.

[@juslitor]

Dye-sublimation printers block UV light a lot better than jets or lasers and also print nicely on transparencies. Worked well in the late 90´s when making pad printing plates. The UV exposure machine had a total number of 3 UV fluorescent tubes that each were about 30 cm long*25mm wide at 8cm distance from the glass, so at the very least, plenty of UV.

[@pro100vald]

One easy to increase resolution would be to costruct a diy litography stepper. Basically it's a pc projector that you focus down the plate using microstope. Huygens Optics channel has a great video about that. Another, easier option may be to buy resin 3d printer - they expose the resin with UV light through high density lcd screen.

[@tracybowling1156]

I've seen Ben's videos, and he IS SO smart. But you are too! You should feel so proud of what you've done so far because it is great! Great job!

[@macrous2120]

This is so much harder without a lab, good job man! The results are incredible

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you!

[@THYZOID]

kinda crazy to me that this way of metal covering even works. great job!

[@jakubniemczuk]

I used this positive 20 spray for pcb and it worked best usin spin coating. But the photoresist has to be cold. And The RPM has to be low. For masks use silver coated film from a commercial painting fab that will produce them for fabrication of sieves for silkscreen printing.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks for the advice!

[@waldovanderwesthuizen4557]

You can get PCB way to print masks on PET plastic film. They do this for flexible PCBs. PET is transparent and has a workable UV transmission up to around 350nm(looking at transmission spectra on Google) but you can increase the exposure time to compensate. The mask will have metal features so you will have a perfect contrast ratio. PCB way can do a 60um line/space resolution. I'm sure you can negotiate a suitable set of parameters if you explain what you want to do.

[@jakobfindlay4136]

One of the ways were continuing to get smaller details in photolithography is by precalculating the distortion of light and changing the mask shape to account for those distortions

[@faultyinterface]

Space age printing press! This was an incredible video to watch. I'm going to have to watch the build video now.

[@MJ12GRAVITON]

Fantastic experiments, super interesting and amazing that you are able to do this at home.

[@Xulunix]

For self made PCBs, i just used naked copper plated PCBs and applied a thin coat of black spray paint. I then used a laser engrave to remove the paint where i wanted to etch the copper away. After etching i removed the paint with thinner.

[@BalticLab]

That's pretty awesome. Can't wait to see what interesting projects will come from this! 🤩

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! If you have any suggestions, let me know. :)

[@1kreature]

Remember that a lot of photo resist have a top and bottom side. Usually the inside curl of a roll should be the side to laminate down onto the surface. (I think you did it right in this video so no worries.) I've had adhesion issues when doing it the other way before.

[@l3gacyb3ta21]

Goodness, I need one of those text prints. Ozymandius on that? Perfect.

[@alexandermarsteller7848]

Using coins as magnetron sputter targets works really nice. The lab I did my Bachelors degree in did that for gold. You really built up a nice setup there.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Amusing to hear, that even pros are doing it that way. A gold coin is still very expensive. But probably cheaper than a gold target. If I ever have the money, I will buy a small piece of gold and roll/hammer it into a thin disk.

[@NiksSofa]

Pro: cheap silver target for the magnetron. Con: never be able to enter England again. :D

[@edgeeffect]

How could not being able to enter England be a "con". ;)

[@NiksSofa]

@@edgeeffect I like the people, and the culture, and the geography, but they have terrible taste in government..

[@sophietaylor9753]

It's actually an Australian coin.

[@edgeeffect]

@@sophietaylor9753 That makes sense, if it was English it wouldn't be silver it would be steel! ;)

[@edgeeffect]

@@sophietaylor9753 That makes sense, if it was English, it wouldn't be silver, it would be steel. ;)

[@rafa_br34]

This is very interesting, with this level of detail you could probably create a simple semiconductor device. It for sure wouldn't be efficient, but it might be worth-it to try.

[@theafro]

Old-school chip fabs used to use a type of heat-shrinking film. the design was layered together by hand (taping-out) then shurnk down to create a photolithography mask. Although a big camera might be easier!

[@FROSTBURG2]

If you have to use a printer, yellow ink is usually the most uv-opaque (this is exploited when making digital negatives for alternative printing techniques), but for the best resolution one of the most accessible mediums is microfilm stock, you can find it packaged in 35mm or medium format rolls and expose it with a camera (using a highly resolving macro lens).

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you for the information!

[@gregmarderofilm9007]

AMD better watch out. Semiconductors coming next? Using a cathode ray tube with a deflection coil in your vacuum setup would be very cool! Electron beam lithography would be a neat project.

[@hallron_]

I love this channel, why it has only 50k subs??? My dream is to be able to do such a things on daily basis

[@PCBWay]

Impressive!

[@AlphaAquilae]

You can improve contrast of that laser printed mask by exposing the print to acetone vapors.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

I forgot to mention that but I have tried it (since ProjectsInFlight suggested it in his video) but the transparency was still a lot higher than the screen printing paper.

[@leothecrafter4808]

Mungolux has photoresist that is quite thick and works well for spin coating, if you want a thinner layer you can dilute it, I used acetone but other solvents that are less volatile might be even better. The resist itself has some issues with being tricky to develop right if your setup has a low contrast ratio but the resolution can be quite good.

[@thomasesr]

Instead of using a mask directly on top of the slide, you could try to use lenses to project the mask from near the light instead. You could then use a bigger printed mask and shrink the pattern using lenses. Maybe an old microscope and projector.

[@feelincrispy7053]

Damn this is impressive for a one man show

[@nilamotk]

I used to use my 3d printer with a small cube being printed at 0c bed 0c nozel amd 0% flow. I "print" this cube wayyy up high off the bed.. Anywho, then I use the bed thats moving back and forth as a shake table. It makes even development nearly perfect every time. Was more effective with the copper etching portion with ferric chloride when I was doing this for PCB manufacturing though, but I used it for the developing too.

[@FrankRoosevelt32]

Kind of amazing some of the most boring school experiences I ever had involve these glass slides. To think if they had just talked about the slides themselves, I’d have been captivated 😂

[@infestus5657]

Nice, photolythografie.

[@ehsan00700]

این ویدیو حداقل باید ده میلیون بازدید و صد ها هزار لایک بگیره!

[@spacenomad5484]

The converging line pattern looked like the printer head moved across, not along the lines. Maybe you can get better definition of features along the axis of printer head movement? It's been a few years, but when I did PCB etching I think laser printers had superior resolution. Other than that, I think optical projection is the best way to increase the resolution. Also crazy expensive I imagine for large area patterns without warping dimensions.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Oh, that's a very good point! Thanks for pointing that out! I will try and see if the results are better if the lines are oriented 90°. My laser printer and ink jet have the same dpi. But the ink jet prints were a lot darker.

[@errorgd]

That's cool, I really need to get back to building V2 of my sputter...

[@mgancarzjr]

Some time ago, I researched screen printing. There was a piece of software which used a six-cartridge Epson printer with each cartridge being black to make the darkest masks.

[@SarahKchannel]

In offset printing, real black is formed by not only printing black, but duplicating the black channel onto the cyan. Probably on inkjet you can even try all other colors. If you use Illustrator or Photoshop you can view each color channel and copy paste them to one another.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Very good idea! I heard before, that some printers print an additional color besides black, but I didn't think of using it here. Overlaying different colors in Photoshop is a good idea! Although I didn't feel like the issue was that my mask was letting light through. Rather, the printer's resolution was reaching its limits.

[@SarahKchannel]

@@AdvancedTinkering I good printer driver (at least on Mac, has the option for 'overprinting' in the settings too.

[@0maxekinge0]

Just mind-blowing 😮🎉

[@Steve-uu7yx]

You should build a jig to project a larger mask first to a smaller point, then with a Fresnel lens into collimated light to then project it onto the actual slide. This way the resolution of the printer no longer becomes a limiting factor in the resolution of small parts.

[@mortlet5180]

A fresnel lens would do more harm than good, since their image forming quality is intrinsically inferior, especially with regards to high-frequency details and optical abberations.

[@sodium.carbide]

you might want to try dlp 3d printer which maybe you can create some sort of undercut for easy lift off, or build a machine to focus a controlled beam of uv light directly to the photo resist..

[@CKOD]

I mean the slides are of about the same size as a 35mm film frame. UV Lightbox with your printed master in it, + Camera lens pointed at it from a fixed distance away to easy reducing optics with tall the annoying abberations to correct for like if you just made your own from raw lens elements. If that works, but you want to expose a larger area, then you can worry about finding a larger lens?

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Yes, I think using optics is the best way to get a good resolution. I will try your suggestion using a camera lens and see if it works.

[@googleuser859]

Fabulous content as always, thank you 😊

[@HennerZeller]

Very cool, and thanks for demonstrating all the steps and the learnings! I've tried laser exposure with my LDGraphy project a while back; the first result was mostly good for PCBs, but not this fine resolution. I think for high resolution, taking a picture with regular film camera e.g. from a screen to a high-contrast film is indeed a good idea, and would be a good next experiment.

[@limtbk]

You can use some lenses to project image from film to glass (like when you print photo from film), but instead of magnifying you can reduct size of projected picture. It will allow you to increase resolution comparing your printer can do. However, it will be tricky to find lences that are transparent to UV light.

[@Couchintheclouds]

You could try cleaning the jets on the ink jet printer. Most printers have a clean function you can use.

[@andymouse]

Great video I can't get enough of this sort of thing ! I imagine your aware of the channel 'Breaking Taps' he plays with magnetron sputtering and deposition issues too.....cheers.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thank you! Yes, Breaking Taps is one of my favorite channels.

[@Termuellinator]

You could think of some kind of optical system for exposure. So that you can print the mask at a higher scale and fokus it down to the actual dimensions.

[@sublucid]

You might be able to increase the definition of your mask by overprinting it (printing the same pattern on top of the existing one) a few times. I’ve done something similar with parallax barrier masks on transparencies.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

I have tried it when I was still using the normal transparent paper but couldn't get them to align perfectly on the second print. I suppose you need a printer that supports this feature and does not eject the paper after the first print.

[@sublucid]

@@AdvancedTinkeringI believe the printer had guides that aligned the paper when printing; perhaps one can 3D model/print a similar guide for the slide mask?

[@notamouse5630]

Something tells me the anti-aliasing in your computer's fonts or OS may be reducing the quality of your masks. Hence the single side fuzzies perhaps. If not that, an image reducing setup may be necessary to get higher quality. Collimated lighting followed by reflection off of a glass backed first surface mirror mask (created by magnetron sputtering) and then shrinking lenses or mirrors should be adequate.

[@upsidedownairline9388]

Hm- you could use a lens to reduce the size of your image. That way you could print at a much larger scale and then focus the image down to whatever size you need. The only difficulty would be the fact your UV light pretty much has to come from a point source. Depending on the photoresist you might be able to get away with a 405 nm laser diode, otherwise you could probably use a single-chip UV LED at longer exposures.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Using some sort of optical system/lenses is probably the best way to get a good resolution. I will see what I can do for a future video.

[@cro2cl267]

great video

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

[@jimsvideos7201]

Here's a guy who has the best toys.

[@superdau]

I use tracing paper and a laser printer to create photomasks for PCBs and it works without problems. That it doesn't work well for you is very likely a combination of materials used and the specific laser printer, not the process itself. Make sure that your photoresist wavelength matches your lights. LEDs are usually really bad at this (unless you made sure they are the right wavelength), because their wavelength is often just slightly below 400nm, while many photoresists are more sensitive closer to 350nm. The dry film is also very thick, usually several tens of µm (compared to a few µm for other film types). That is important, because resists have an "aspect ratio", that is how narrow a feature can be compared to film thickness. E. g. an aspect ratio of 10:1 means for a film thickness of 50µm features can't get narrower than 5µm. It's essentially the same reason why you put your printouts face down onto the resist. For reference: • The paper I use is tracing paper 82g/m² (Schoellershammer Glama Microdraft hochtransparentes Zeichenpapier, DIN A4 Block mit 50 Blatt, 82 g/m²). • The printer is an ancient Brother HL-2030 with unbranded refill toner, set to the highest resolution and no "toner saving". No double stacking or printing needed. • The PCBs are Bungard presensitized boards. Obviously PCBs are not what you need, but Bungard offers a "Presensitizing Service" for your own material. Maybe they can do it on glass as well? Their photoresist has a very wide margin between removing the exposed resist and dissolving the non-exposed resist. • The exposure is done by a repurposed face tanner. I put the 4 UV tubes and the back reflector of the tanner into an old flatbed scanner case.

[@Th3_Gael]

LED household lights don't produce any UV. I work with photoresist under white LED light regularly without issue. As for increasing resolution, is it possible to use multiple masks layered like they do for silicon chip production?

[@darklirom.1183]

I was wondering if you couldnt just print the mask in big letters then use a lens to focus down the light passing through the paper? It would require a lens the size of your sheet of paper but i believe you can get a4 size Fresnel lenses for pretty cheap. The only thing you'll have to figure out is where the focal point is. But then you'll have the ability to get samples the size of an A4 sheet of paper with the current resolution or smaller samples: In the case of the glass plate youre using 26x76mm plates, using a4 sheet you'd get aproximatively a 10x in your resolution. Not enough to call it perfect but cheap and easy to setup!

[@AndromedaCripps]

I’ve watched your shorts on this technique and it’s interesting, I just clicked on this video because of the super thought-provoking writing in the thumbnail and I just have to say: Bold of the author to assume that observable space time is all there is. We know about the four dimensions of Length, Width, Depth, and Time. But if there are other dimensions “higher” than these, there could be higher dimensional beings outside of observable time, the same way that we can appear “outside of” observable space to hypothetical 2-dimensional creatures when we change our depth to be outside of their plane. I know this thinking is more based on a perfect and hypothetical mathematical line of thinking and not an empirical physical one, but I just don’t think the argument that nothing existed before time or to “cause” the Big Bang is any more empirical than my thinking. It’s just as much a guess, because if there was to be anything before the Big Bang, we would be incapable of measuring it. Why do we assume time is linear, with a beginning and an end? Idk, people can have different beliefs and that’s ok 😂 Just this author clearly feels like they’ve proven god can’t exist and I just don’t think they have, scientifically 😂 Rant over. And just for reference, I’m not a hyperreligious American, the closest thing you could call my spirituality is maybe agnostic paganism?

[@supergiantbubbles]

Have you considered using an MSLA 3d printer to expose the photoresist? Modern ones have nicely designed optical systems that project very detailed UV light in whatever pattern you want. It would add a bit of cost, but you could skip the special paper and printing and probably have higher detail as well.

[@1kreature]

You can also try your inkjet in photo mode which may increase resolution a lot.

[@Gozagu.]

is it not possible to use the screen of a resin 3d printer instead of a uv masking method as it kinda functions as a uv mask itself, maybe a option for testing.

[@jaedinalways1535]

"If you want to feel bad you can always compare yourself to applied science" had me dying. 😂

[@ThomasMcMillan1]

What about using a lcd uv resin bed to photo etch the material?

[@LukeM912]

I wonder if you used polarized light for the uv step if it would clean up the lettering a bit

[@n-steam]

Is it possible to print a larger template, to make a smaller one? I'm thinking along the lines of a hot halogen bulb, a magnifying glass and some thermal printing paper? I don't know how transparent the black would be, but it should make crisp edges at minute scales.

[@Lux158]

Maybe use a Fresnel lens and a "light tunnel" to increase the intensity of the lighting and the "directness" of it.. Also maybe you can make a bigger pattern on a glass slide, and place it behind a focusing lens so its shadow mask of the area of the real target.

[@Enjoymentboy]

I wonder if you could expose the glass in a 12K resin 3D printer to get a much finer resolution?

[@xanokothe]

You can also use an ASML machine, I think you can get a good DUV for 60M

[@mikesalm5053]

You should try ordering a metal mask with your text or designs laser cut. PCB Way should be able to accommodate that. They make solder paste masks for custom pcbs.

[@alex13902]

The issue with this is unsupported lands, such as the inside of a lowercase e for example. Those will just fall out. With a PCB paste mask, there are no unsupported islands like this.

[@xDevscom_EE]

How about making inverse photo-magnifier setup? You could then use much larger physical mask, but using a lens project the actual UV exposing onto the glass slide with much smaller dimensions. Just like modern silicon wafer photolitography process but much simpler?

[@drhxa]

Could you use lenses somehow during the uv treatment of your photoresist?

[@rallymax2]

I would experiment with a 4K monitor and a lens to project it on the glass. Project with blue only might be enough to develop the photo resist. If not you could remove the back panel and replace the white led backlight with ultraviolet leds. 4K pixels (horizontal) projected to 4cm glass surface would yield 1000 pixels per cm = 10,000 per meter resulting in a 0.00001 meter resolution which is 10micron.

[@thoughtstream9591]

I wonder if you could use a fiber laser on very, very low settings to "draw" on the photoresist. Of course that requires a fiber laser at the right wave length so it would be expensive and possible not work.

[@AdvancedTinkering]

I was also thinking about that. But a fiber laser is prohibitively expensive for me. Otherwise it would definitely be worth a try. Maybe not even using photoresist but just burning away a coating (layer of paint) which can be dissolved after sputtering.

[@PhysicsMicroLearning]

thank you for this useful video. What photoresist did you use?

[@russwilliams4777]

Awesome! Rather than improving the mask resolution, would it be easier to focus the UV optically? You mention wanting the lamp "as far away as possible", presumably so that the rays are _approximately_ parallel at the shadow mask, but it should be possible to put a much larger mask directly on the lamp and use a concave lens to focus it down to slide-sized parallel rays. Similarly, you could then use an LCD (e.g. from a resin printer) - or a DLP and mirror - to make it an active mask.

[@АртемСинельников-ш4х]

Argon pressure during sputtering is ok for magnetron and too high for the turbopump, providing excessive heating of blades and motor overload. You could have used another input of this two-port turbopump to lighter the load, or provide flow restriction at its input.

[@w__a__l__e]

man.. i really wanna start doing this kinda stuff again..

[@UCgBe3]

Maybe you can find a way to use a scaling factor on the mask. In other words, print the mask x2 as big, then scale it down to the desired size using lenses like they do in the semiconductor industry.

[@thomasguilder9288]

In my experience you should use a point light source. Doing printed circuit boards, a light source that wide as the one you use severely limits the achievable resolution. I actually prefer a metal halide lamp without reflector.

[@poiuytrewq4645]

it looks like the imperfections in your print are in one axis, rotating your mask may allow you to squeeze out a bit more resolution, past that maybe try using optics to scale down a larger mask to a smaller area

[@TheShorterboy]

Riston is fine under LED's as they have no UV, get an old UV eprom eraser for uber results or use a SLA 3d printer to do the exposure without all the printing drama as it prints directly to the Riston don't forget to reverse stuff, we use it to make PCB's

[@raph151515]

nice ! is it possible that you contaminate the gloves with the adhesive paper?

[@matthewphillips9083]

I'm not sure if another comment has mentioned it already but I'd be interested to see whether an LCD resin printer with a high enough resolutions could actually improve your resolution. I imagine you just place the slide on the print bed instead of the VAT of resin and do a manual exposure for as long as you need.

[@DanBowkley]

I don't think there's really a better way to improve the mask than to make it a lot bigger. A regular old camera lens and something to mount stuff to should be pretty easy to cobble together into basically a backwards photographic enlarger.

[@ugarit5]

Btw i think would be easy for you to integrate in the setup a lens to focus the uv light better. Cant wait to see how youll improve the mask

[@AdvancedTinkering]

Using lenses to project a smaller image of the mask onto the photoresist is the next step :)

[@travismiller5548]

One slightly less toxic alternative to using KOH+IPA for cleaning your glass might be to use "whiting," or calcium carbonate. It is used for cleaning flux and cement in creating stained glass. It was recommended to me in a video by HISglassworks for preparing glass for gluing with HXTAL- an archival grade polyester epoxy. Glass artists use a titanium "pen" to indelibly sign their artwork. The titanium marking is improved by marking the glass while it is wet. I have had good results creating images on glass using a TiPen in a desktop CNC. I have not had good results attempting to electroplate the titanium images with copper- the plating achieves a certain thickness and peels back away from the glass in the plating bath, and further plating creates more "images" which also lift up. The result was like pages of an open book, lifting slightly due to their own stiffness. The copper doesn't bond well to the titanium.

[@lawabidingcitizen5153]

How about printing on paper with a laser printer and transfer it to the glass with acetone? Works well for etching pcbs, wonder what the resolution limit is though...

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

In effect you are doing what in photographic terms would be called a contact print, where the negative is in contact with the emulsion of the print. Photolithography would give higher resolution. It is the photographic equivalent of using the enlarger in reverse.

[@MermaidSystem]

I have one idea, how you could get finer details. But this way would involve Optics. You can Print your stencil way bigger, like A4 Paper Size biger and than project it with lenses smaler on your resist. Like a Overhead Projector but making everything smaler. Or maybe with an Resin SLA Printer. And your Ad was perfect. normaly is skip this ads but you made it intresting and not disrupting your video an i watched it.

[@tricanproductions6184]

What is the name of the screen printing paper? When I search that on Amazon for example I only find the transparencies for projectors.

[@NijiflianBustock]

You vould try printing the image 200% larger and using a lens to focus it and scale it back down. Effectivly doubling the resolution. I believe this technique is used in cpu manufacturing.

[@MaxWithTheSax]

I wonder how hard it would be to repurpose a SLA (or MSLA) printer to replace the masks.

[@supergiantbubbles]

I'm pretty sure that would work great as long as the photoresist is sensitive to 405nm light. You wouldn't need to modify the printer at all. Just put the slide down onto the screen and expose it with your image. Converting an image into an STL or 3MF that could be printed is trivial.