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This paper presents a home-built projection lithographer designed to transfer the image from a DLP (digital light processing) projector MEMS matrix onto the microscope objective’s field of view, where a photoresist-covered substrate is placed. The photoresist is exposed using blue light with a wavelength of 450 nm. To calibrate the device and adjust focal lengths, we utilize a red light that does not affect the photoresist. The substrate is located on a movable platform, allowing the exposure field to be shifted, enabling the exposure of designs with lateral sizes of 1 × 1 cm2 at a resolution of a few micrometers. Our setup showcases a 2 μm resolution for the single frame 200 × 100 μm2, and a 5 μm resolution for 1 × 1 cm2 with field stitching. The exposure speed, approximately 1 mm2/100 s, proves to be sufficient for a variety of laboratory prototyping needs. This system offers a significant advantage due to its utilization of easily accessible and budget-friendly components, thereby enhancing its accessibility for a broader user base. The exposure speed and resolution meet the requirements for laboratory prototyping in the fields of 2D materials, quantum optics, superconducting microelectronics, microfluidics, and biology.

The fast and precise fabrication of micro-devices based on single flakes of novel 2D materials and stacked heterostructures is vital for exploration of novel functionalities. In this paper, we demonstrate a fast high-resolution contact mask lithography through a simple upgrade of metallographic optical microscope. Suggested kit for the micromask lithography is compact and easily compatible with a glove box, thus being suitable for a wide range of air-unstable materials. The shadow masks could be either ordered commercially or fabricated in a laboratory using a beam lithography. The processes of the mask alignment and the resist exposure take a few minutes and provide a micrometer resolution. With the total price of the kit components around USD 200, our approach would be convenient for laboratories with the limited access to commercial lithographic systems.

Van-der Waals heterostructures assembled from one or few atomic layer thickness crystals are becoming increasingly more popular in condensed matter physics. These structures are assembled using transfer machines, those are based on mask aligners, probe stations or are home-made. For many laboratories it is vital to build a simple, convenient and universal transfer machine. In this paper we discuss the guiding principles for the design of such a machine, review the existing machines and demonstrate our own construction, that is powerful and fast-in-operation. All components of this machine are extremely cheap and can be easily purchased using common online retail services. Moreover, assembling a heterostructure out of exfoliated commercially available hexagonal boron nitride and tungsten diselenide crystals with a pick-up technique and using the microphotolumenescence spectra, we show well-resolved exciton and trion lines, as a results of disorder suppression in WSe2 monolayer. Our results thus show that technology of the two-dimensional materials and heterostructures becomes accessible to anyone.