Mask aligners, laser writers, i-line steppers and spin coaters for research cleanrooms and pilot lines, inspected and serviced by our own engineers.
Contact and proximity UV exposure for small wafers and pieces; the workhorse of teaching and research cleanrooms.
Maskless direct writing for prototypes, and in-house photomask making for the aligners.
Reduction projection exposure at 365 nm for pilot lines that need overlay and resolution beyond contact printing.
Resist coating, developing and baking; small, cheap to run and often the first tool a new lab buys.
150 mm (6 in) · 1990s–2010s
100 mm (4 in) · 2000s–2010s
150 mm (6 in) · 2000s–2010s
200 mm (8 in) · 2000s–2020s
200 mm (8 in) · 1990s–2000s
200 mm (8 in) · 2000s–2020s
Lithography decides what every later step can achieve, so it is usually the first tool a new cleanroom buys and the one users complain about first when it drifts. We sell used and refurbished lithography equipment for university cleanrooms, pilot lines and small fabs, and we service the tools you already own: lamp houses, optics, alignment stages, chucks and the controllers that tie them together.
The category covers four families. Most research labs need two of them: a way to coat resist and a way to expose it.
Mask aligners are the default for feature sizes down to a few micrometres. They expose the whole wafer at once in contact or proximity mode, which makes them fast and forgiving for teaching. The SUSS MA6 is a common first aligner for students; the smaller MJB4 suits piece work and tight budgets, and the EVG620 adds bond alignment options that MEMS groups value.
Laser lithography systems such as the Heidelberg DWL 66+ write patterns directly from a CAD file. They are slower per wafer but remove the wait and cost of buying masks, and they can write chrome masks for your aligner. Labs with many short projects often find a writer pays for itself in mask savings.
i-line steppers like the ASML PAS 5500 project a reduced reticle image at 365 nm. They bring better overlay and resolution than contact printing, at the price of a large footprint, strict temperature control and a more involved installation. They make sense for pilot lines running repeatable product, less so for a teaching lab.
Spin coaters such as the Brewer Science Cee 200X sit next to every exposure tool. They are simple, but chuck vacuum, speed accuracy and bowl exhaust all show up in your film uniformity.
Every lithography tool we sell is graded Certified, Refurbished, Inspected or As-is, and the report says what we measured. For exposure tools the checks focus on the light path and the mechanics that hold the wafer and the mask:
For steppers we add stage and laser interferometer checks, reticle handling and the environmental chamber. For coaters we check motor speed against setpoint, acceleration, chuck vacuum and the drain and exhaust path.
Typical refurbishment work on an aligner is unglamorous: new seals and vacuum lines, cleaned or replaced optics, a recalibrated intensity map and fresh alignment. On older units the controller and microscope cameras are common weak points, and we can replace or retrofit them.
The upgrade most labs ask about is a UV-LED conversion. An LED source removes lamp warm-up, lamp changes and mercury handling, and it usually lowers running cost. Exposure doses change with the new spectrum, so plan time to re-qualify your resist processes. Regular calibration of intensity and uniformity keeps exposure results stable whichever source you run.
A few points decide whether a lithography tool will work in your lab:
Tell us your feature sizes, substrates and room, and we will shortlist the tools that fit. Our buying guide for used mask aligners covers the checks in more detail.
For most SUSS and EVG aligners, yes. The lamp house is replaced with an LED source, and exposure doses usually need re-qualifying on your resists afterwards.
A mask aligner exposes a whole wafer in seconds but needs masks; a laser writer needs no masks but writes slowly. Many labs start with an aligner and buy masks, then add a writer when design turnover grows.
It depends on the platform and its chucks and mask holders. Most aligners in this range work from pieces up to 100 or 150 mm, and steppers are usually set up for 150 or 200 mm.
Reticles are rarely part of a sale. We list what comes with each tool in the inspection report and can advise on test reticles for acceptance.
Typically single-phase power, vacuum, compressed dry air and nitrogen, plus exhaust for the mercury lamp house if it keeps one. The machine page lists the specifics.
Why a second-hand etcher or furnace can need an export licence, which rules usually apply in the EU, and what buyers and sellers should prepare before shipping.
Decontamination, de-installation, crating, transport and hook-up. How to plan a semiconductor tool move so it arrives intact and runs again quickly.
As-is, Inspected, Refurbished, Certified or new. What each option actually includes, where the risk sits, and how to match it to your lab.
Tell us the process, wafer size and facilities. We shortlist tools that fit and send an inspection report with every offer.