The Principle and Development of Optical Maskless Lithography Based Digital Micromirror Device (DMD)

A comprehensive review of the DMD-based optical lithography system has been conducted. The essence of the point-array with an oblique-scanning and stepping operation principle has been systematically analyzed, which will serve as the core driving force for its development and application. Similar to conventional lithography, the system development has been presented from the aspects of critical dimension (CD) resolution, overlay accuracy, and throughput. With the unique characterizations of the digital virtue mask, achievements are summarized from integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing to various micro-scale fabrication processes.