Spin Coater Research

Spin Coater Research Using Cee® Equipment

Real Research. Real Labs. Proven Performance.

Cee® spin coaters and wafer processing equipment have supported university, nanofabrication, biomedical, and advanced materials research since 1987. Originating as a division of Brewer Science, Cee® equipment was developed to meet demanding internal semiconductor process requirements where commercially available systems fell short. This reference library documents published research, university facilities, and application-specific process use involving Cee® equipment.

Today, Cee® continues this legacy, delivering repeatable, high-performance wafer processing equipment used in university nanofabs, MEMS labs, lithography workflows, and advanced materials research worldwide.

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Application

Material

Equipment Type

Equipment Model

Wafer Size

Substrate Type

Cee® 200X and 200X-F Spin Coaters – MIT Fabtools Listing

Spin Coater
Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Unknown

MIT’s Fabtools listing explicitly references Cee® 200X-F and Cee® 200X spin coaters within its shared nanofabrication tool set. The indexed listing associates these systems with Spinner-EBL, Spinner-Polymer, and Photo / Coat usage categories.

Cee® Apogee Spin Coater – Washington Nanofabrication Facility

Spin Coater
Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Unknown

The Washington Nanofabrication Facility tool list explicitly includes a Cee® Apogee Spin Coater within its Lithography and Direct Patterning area.

Cee® Lithography Tools – Utah Nanofab

Bake Plate, Spin Coater
Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Antireflective Coating, AZ Barli II, AZ40XT, AZ9260, HMDS, LOR10B, maP 1275, MiR 701, nLOF 2020, S1813, SU-8

Utah Nanofab lists multiple specific Cee® tools across its cleanroom lithography workflow, including legacy Cee® 100 and 200X-series spinners, a Cee® 200XD develop spinner, and current-generation Apogee® spin coat and bake capability. The site also explicitly lists supported resist materials used within its photolithography process set.

Cee® Lithography Support Tools – Cornell NanoScale Facility

Bake Plate, Spin Coater
Edge Bead Removal (EBR), Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Microposit EBR 10A, Unknown

Cornell NanoScale Facility lists multiple specific Cee® lithography support tools in its open-access cleanroom, including Cee® 1300X hotplates, Cee® Apogee spinners, and a Cee® Flange Spinner Model 200 platform used for edge bead removal.

Neuromorphic Computing of SiC Based Memristor

Bake Plate, Spin Coater
Material Science
Materials: AZ2070, S1813

This doctoral thesis investigates SiC-based memristors for neuromorphic computing. Within the fabrication flow, the photolithography process explicitly includes S1813 positive photoresist, AZ2070 negative resist, silicon wafers, and a Cee™ Apogee Spin Coater and Bake Plate module for the resist spin/bake step.

Cee® Spin Coating and Bake Systems – KU Nanofabrication Facility

Bake Plate, Spin Coater
Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Unknown

The KU Nanofabrication Facility provides Cee® spin coating and bake systems as part of its shared cleanroom infrastructure for lithography and thin-film processing.

Cee® Apogee® Lithography Workflow – AggieFab Nanofabrication Facility

Bake Plate, Spin Coater, Spin Developer
Lithography, Nanofabrication, Open Facitlity
Materials: Photoresist, PMMA, Polyimide, SU-8

The AggieFab facility at Texas A&M utilizes a complete Cee® lithography workflow, including spin coating, bake, and develop systems, to support a wide range of thin-film and photolithographic processes in a shared research environment.

Flexible Near-Field Electronics for High-Resolution Biosensing

Spin Coater
Flexible Electronics
Materials: AZ3310, Photoresist, SU-8

This work demonstrates fabrication of flexible near-field electronic biosensors using spin-coated SU-8 and AZ3310 photoresists. The study explicitly references Cee® 200X-F and Apogee® systems for these coating steps.

Sub-1% Coating Uniformity on 300 mm Wafers Sub-1% Coating Uniformity on 300 mm Wafers Using Apogee™ Spin Coater

Spin Coater
Lithography
Materials: SU-8

A series of controlled experiments were performed to achieve sub-1% total thickness variation across 300 mm silicon wafers using a Cee® 300X (Apogee™) spin coater platform. Multiple process variables were evaluated, including dispense method (static vs dynamic), ramp-to-spin rates, exhaust control, pre-wet conditions, and spread spin behavior. The results identified exhaust control and ramp-to-spin as the most significant contributors to coating uniformity.

What This Page Represents

This page documents real-world use of Cee® equipment in research and development environments.

Each reference below represents:

Published research
University lab installations
Documented wafer processing applications

These are verifiable use cases, not marketing claims.

*Where process details are not specified in the original source, entries are labeled accordingly to maintain accuracy.

Cee® Equipment in University and R&D Applications

Cee® systems support a wide range of research fields:

Semiconductor fabrication – lithography and photoresist coating
MEMS development – micro-scale device fabrication
Microfluidics – channel formation and polymer structuring
Advanced materials – thin films and specialty coatings

These applications demand consistent, repeatable processing performance,a core strength of Cee® equipment.

This foundation continues to influence modern Cee® system design, ensuring performance aligned with real-world wafer processing challenges.

Proven in Research Environments

Cee® equipment is actively used across academic and industrial research settings:

Referenced in peer-reviewed publications and university research
Deployed in nanofabrication facilities and cleanrooms worldwide
Supporting spin coating, baking, developing, and wafer-level processing
Used for photoresists, polymers, and advanced coating materials
Lineage of systems dating back to 1987

Processes Using Cee® Equipment

Cee® spin coaters and bake systems are used for:

Spin coating of photoresists (e.g., AZ series, SU-8)
Thick film and multi-layer coating processes
Edge bead removal (EBR)
Soft bake and hard bake processing
Thin film and polymer coating applications

These processes require uniformity, repeatability, and precise process control.

Built for Repeatability. Proven Through Use.

Cee® equipment is designed to deliver:

Uniform coating performance across substrates
Controlled thermal processing for solvent evaporation and curing
Repeatable recipes and process parameters
Long term reliability operation in both research and production environments

The references above represent a subset of documented applications, demonstrating how Cee® equipment supports real-world wafer processing challenges.

Engineered for Real Process Demands

Unlike general purpose systems lacking process specific control, Cee® equipment was originally engineered to meet internal semiconductor processing requirements where precision, repeatability, and material compatibility were critical.

Cost Effective Equipment® originated in 1987 as a division of Brewer Science, where vigorous internal process requirements demanded higher performance and reliability than available on the commodity market. To meet these demands, spin coating and bake equipment were developed specifically to support advanced materials processing. These internally developed systems were later adopted by research labs and universities worldwide, forming the foundation of what is now Cee® Apogee™ wafer processing equipment.

In 2017, Cee® became an independent company, continuing to build on this foundation with a focused commitment to reliable, high-performance wafer processing equipment.