Investigation of sidewall cracking in PMMA LIGA structures

During x-ray exposure in the LIGA process, the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) photoresist undergoes chain scission, which reduces the molecular weight of the exposed materials. Under some exposure and development conditions, sidewall cracking is observed on the PMMA sidewall, creating surface texture that is undesirable. In this research, exposed and developed PMMA sidewalls were examined for evidence of crack formation using optical profilometry. PMMA thickness, exposure dose and delay time between the end of exposure and beginning of development were varied. Our analysis of samples, with three different radiation doses and four different delay times from the end of exposure to the beginning of development, indicate that the first occurrence of cracking and the extent of cracking are affected by both the dose and the development delay time. This work includes the examination of the depth of cracks into the PMMA, distance between cracks, the width of cracks and the relationship between crack occurrence and dose profile. An empirical predictive model to correlate the delay time to the observance of sidewall cracking based on the deposited dose is presented. This information has direct implication for predicting processing conditions and logistics for LIGA fabricated parts.