I have used outputcity as well.  I found their customer service excellent,
but their patterns were less than perfect.  I had a mask made with what was
supposed to be 10umX10um squares, but they came out looking like circles.
Additionally, the sides of larger patterns were rather rough, likely as a
result of printing process.  Also, the mask I received from them consisted
of the ink pattern sandwiched on each side by a transparency.  I don't know
if this is the only way they do it, but it made close contact between mask
and substrate a problem.

-Matt Estes

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 1:56 PM
To: General MEMS discussion
Subject: Re: [mems-talk] transparency mask

Some of my colleagues ask outputcity to print transparency masks with
feature size down to 10 um. It takes about 24 hours for processing
including UPS shipping. For bigger patterns, a local shop is availabe.
But as Rupesh pointed out, the "transparency" mask from outputcity is
film mask which is thicker than that from the local shop. I guess the
local shop uses normal transparencies. If you are not limited by time,
I recommend film mask since it is more reliable and not much more
expensive than transparency. My experience with transparecy mask is
frustrating. Even for patterns bigger than 50 um, different batches of
printed transparency (with the same pattern) give different result
while keeping all the other aspects of fabrication process the same. I
don't know if anyone else on this list shares the same feeling. Hope
this helps.