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Design, Fabrication, and Optical Characterization of a Low-Cost and Open-Source Spin Coater
- Source :
-
Journal of Chemical Education . Jun 2019 96(6):1268-1272. - Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- A spin coater is widely used for thin film coating in nano/microtechnology. In this paper, a spin coater with inexpensive mechanical and electronic components was fabricated based on an open-source Arduino microcontroller. To measure and control the spin speed of the spin coater, two sensor types including two infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or a Hall Effect (HE) integrated circuit (IC) were used. The spin coater was tested for coating polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer in the spin speed range of 1000-9000 rpm (revolutions per minute). An optical interferometric method was used to determine the thickness and optical transmittance of the spin-coated PDMS films. The results show that the performance of this spin coater is similar to that of a commercial model and therefore it can be used in the laboratory and for student education. The total cost and power consumption of the spin coater are less than $30 and 5 W, respectively.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0021-9584
- Volume :
- 96
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Journal of Chemical Education
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ1218914
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00013