ABSTRACT
During the last decade a revolution has occurred in the optics and photonics industry, largely based on the wafer-level fabrication of components. The key to this process is the lithography and etching of micro-optical elements in a variety of substrates in III-V semiconductors and glass materials. Most processes utilize a patterning and etching process that is repeated a number of times to reach high diffraction effi ciencies and is quite costly in wafer-level processing steps. The binary square type of resist profi le has been researched and optimized extensively for the past 20 years in order to reach the highest possible level of resolution with the optical stepper of deep ultraviolet (DUV) wavelength. However, the need for single-step lithographic patterning of high-effi ciency optical elements is a necessity for high volume applications.
