AP200

The Ultratech AP200 is a lithography tool used for photolithographic pattern transfer in semiconductor manufacturing.

The AP200 belongs to the class of mask aligners and steppers used to place circuit patterns onto a photoresist-coated substrate by controlled exposure to light.

A lithography aligner or stepper positions a mask or reticle relative to the substrate and exposes selected areas through optical imaging.

The exposure creates a latent pattern in photoresist, and later chemical processing transfers that pattern into the underlying film or wafer.

Lithography sits near the front end of semiconductor process flow, after surface preparation and resist coating and before development, etching, or deposition pattern transfer steps.

The Ultratech AP200 is used when patterned exposure is needed on a substrate before the patterned features are formed in subsequent processing.

Mask aligners and steppers are used for defining patterned structures on wafers and other substrates in semiconductor and related precision microfabrication work.

Equipment of this class is also used in processes that require repeated optical patterning rather than direct mechanical contact with the feature geometry.