Manufacturing Methods for Photoresist Adhesion in Nano-Antenna Fabrication

Proper fabrication of prototypes will achieve the desired hardness characteristics to allow best adhesion to the underlying substrate along with the best hardness characteristics.

Summary of Work

Antenna rectification could be a viable source of alternative energy, and can be more efficient than current solar and thermal alternative energy sources. Nanoantenna electromagnetic collectors (NECs) which combines the technologies of antennas, which collects electromagnetic energy to form a charge and alternating current, with rectifiers which converts this alternating current (AC) in to useable direct current (DC). Laboratory scale fabrication is built upon silicon wafer prototypes with SU-8 photoresist being built into the nanoantennas. Contact Photolithography is the mechanism used to pattern the antenna array on the silicon substrate surface using Ultra-violet (UV) light against the substrate while it is in contact with an optical masks. Exposure dosage and post exposure development time also affects the viscosity and density of the photoresist. Alignment of the SU-8 mask and conductive metals is also of great importance for the resistance and linearity of the final prototype so great care must be taken in aligning optical masks onto the substrate. Patterned SU-8 is then wet etched to remove unexposed photoresist to reveal SU-8 pillars embedded in the conductive metal. Rectifying diodes are then added after fabrication. Following fabrication of the prototype and application of diodes, current versus voltage test are performed to obtain variances in charge produced across different temperatures. Further study is required to differentiate legitimate rectification from the thermocouple effect between metals.