General Lab Information

Nanofabrication Facility

All Equipment »

The Nanofabrication Facility is housed in a class 100/1000 clean room (5,000 sq. ft) dedicated to state-of-the art patterning and processing of thin films, nanomaterials, and devices. The instrumentation in the facility has been optimized to provide maximum flexibility for its users, with capabilities to pattern a variety of materials over a wide range of size scales, from 10 nanometers to 10 millimeters. The clean room is used to fabricate devices for nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, biomedical engineering, photovoltaics, x-ray optics, nanomagnetics and beyond.

» Nanofabrication Resources

Lithography

Electron Beam Lithography

JEOL JBX-6300FS

Contact: Nikhil Tiwale, Ming Lu

Dedicated electron beam lithography system, operated at 100 keV is capable of patterning feature sizes as small as 8 nm. The system provides capability of high-speed, large-area exposures (1mm field size) and sub-20 nm overlay and stitching accuracy. The system can handle sample substrates from 5mm up to 3” or 4” wafers, as well as 4” photomasks.

Helios G5

Contact: Fernando Camino

Equipped with NPGS system, available for electron beam lithography patterning at lower acceleration voltages between 0.5 - 30 keV on relatively smaller (few cm) sized samples.

3-D Nanolithography

Nanoscribe Photonic Professional GT

Contact: Ming Lu

Automatic laser-based 3D nano-printer, capable of creating 3D polymeric models down to sub-200 nm resolution using the two-photon polymerization technique.

Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Patterning

Helios G5

Contact: Fernando Camino

FIB can be operated in unison with the NPGS system for directly patterning substrates via ion-beam milling.

Photolithography

Karl Suss MA6

Contact: Nikhil Tiwale

Contact mask aligner is used to pattern features as small as 1 um using UV exposure at 405 nm or 240 nm wavelength and a suitable mask. Substrate sizes range from small chips (~10 mm x 10 mm) to 4” diameter wafers.

Thin-Film Deposition

Physical Vapor Deposition

Kurt J. Lesker PVD 75

Contact: Nikhil Tiwale, Gwen Wright

  1. Thermal/electron-beam evaporator dedicated for high-purity device contact materials

  2. 3-target magnetron DC/RF sputter deposition system with source shutter

  3. 4-pocket electron beam deposition system for various oxides and metal deposition

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Trion Orion III PECVD

Contact: Ming Lu

Deposition of thin films of Si, SiO2, Si3N4, and SiOxNy on samples/wafers up to 6" in diameter.

Reactive Ion Etching

Trion Phantom III

Contact: Ming Lu

General-purpose fluorine-based plasma etch tool for etching thin films (generally 1 µm or less in thickness) on samples/wafers up to 6" in diameter. Many processes for etching thin layers of photoresist, metal, semiconductors, or insulators are available.

Oxford Instruments Plasmalab 100 (Oxford C) [Contact: Ming Lu]

A fully loaded inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactive ion etch tool which is configured for etching compound semiconductors, metals, metal oxides, silicon and dielectric materials with 12 process gases (Cl2, BCl3, SiCl4, HBr, H2, CH4, SF6, CF4, C4F8, O2, Ar and N2).The system has demonstrated the capability to etch vertical walls in silicon to a depth of 300 µm at etch rates of 3 µm / min with an aspect ratio (width of feature to etch depth) of 50:1.

Oxford Instruments Plasmalab 100 (Oxford F) [Contact: Ming Lu]

Uses an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source for etching silicon and dielectric materials using fluorine chemistry. The system has been upgraded with Cobra® ICP plasma source and a separate RF generator driving substrate DC bias which allows for superior control of radicals and ions during the plasma processing. The system has demonstrated the capability to etch vertical walls in silicon to a depth of 300 µm at etch rates of 3 µm / min with an aspect ratio (width of feature to etch depth) of 50:1.

Atomic Layer Etching

Plasma-based atomic layer etching system is being installed for layer-by-layer etching of materials. Under commissioning…

Metrology

Dual Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) / Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system

Helios G5

Contact: Fernando Camino

Dual-beam systems capable of simultaneous focused ion beam milling and SEM imaging. The systems are capable of high-resolution SEM (1 nm), FIB (5 nm), and STEM (0.8 nm) imaging. Further capabilities include gas injector for electron or ion beam-assisted deposition of platinum and TEOS (dielectric), x-ray detector for EDS analysis, nano-manipulator probe, and in-situ sample electrical characterization.

Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) Imaging

Helios G5

Contact: Fernando Camino

EBIC is an analysis technique in the SEM, which creates images using the electrical response of the sample as a function of the scanning position of the electron beam.

Thin film Metrology

Contact: Nikhil Tiwale

Dektak 150 Stylus Profilometer, Filmetric F20 surface reflectometer, and Nikon optical microscopes are available for nanofabrication facility users.

  • 3-D Laser Lithography System (Photonic Professional GT)

    3-D Litho:

    This tool (Nanoscribe Photonic Professional GT) is an automatic 3-D nanolithography system/3-D printer capable of creating polymer patterns/models down to sub-200 nm resolution using two-photon polymerization technique.

  • Deep Reactive Ion Etcher (DRIE), w/Bosch process-Oxford F

    Silicon DRIE:

    This system has demonstrated capability to etch vertical walls in silicon to a depth of 300 µm at etch rates of 3 µm / min with an aspect ratio (width of feature to etch depth) of 1:50. It has a laser interferometer endpoint detector (shared with the other Oxford ICP RIE tool) to help achieving an accurate etching depth. 

  • Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) Imaging-Helios G5

    Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) Imaging:

    EBIC is an analysis technique in the SEM, which creates images using the electrical response of the sample as a function of the scanning position of the electron beam. 

  • Electron Beam Lithography Tool (EBL)

    Ebeam Litho:

    The JEOL JBX-6300FS is a state-of-the-art 100kV EBL tool providing high-speed patterning capabilities with feature sizes as small as 8 nm over mm-scale areas. 

  • Helios G5 Dual Beam SEM/FIB Microscope

    Helios G5 Dual Beam SEM/FIB Microscope:

    Excellent electron and FIB imaging resolution (including at FIB energies below 2 keV). It possesses an array of imaging, analysis, device fabrication, electrical characterization, and TEM sample preparation capabilities.

  • In-Situ Electrical Characterization-Helios G5

    The Helios G5 has two ways to perform in-situ electrical characterization. One is to use the 7-pin SMA electrical feedthrough, which requires fixed wiring of the electrodes to the sample or device. The other is to perform two-terminal electrical probing (no need for fixed wiring) using two Kleindiek Nanotechnik robotic manipulators (fA-range current measurement resolution and nanometer scale positioning resolution). 

  • Lesker Electron Beam Deposition System

    Ebeam Deposit:

    Three separate physical vapor deposition systems (all Kurt J. Lesker PVD75) are available for thin-film sputter, thermal, and electron-beam deposition of a wide variety of materials. 

  • Lesker Sputter Coater

    PVD75 Coater:

    Three separate physical vapor deposition systems (all Kurt J. Lesker PVD75) are available for thin-film sputter, thermal, and electron-beam deposition of a wide variety of materials.

  • Lesker Thermal/E-beam evaporator for electrical contacts

    Contacts Evaporator:

    Three separate physical vapor deposition systems (all Kurt J. Lesker PVD75) are available for thin-film sputter, thermal, and electron-beam deposition of a wide variety of materials. 

  • Oxford Chlorine Etcher C (RIE-C)

    Oxford Metal Etcher:

    This ICP Reactive Ion Etching system (Oxford Instruments Plasmalab 100) has an inductively coupled plasma source for high-speed, anisotropic plasma etching. 

  • Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) System

    Trion PECVD:

    This deposition system (Trion Orion III) provides plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of thin films. Current capabilities include precursor gases for deposition of SiO2, Si3N4, and amorphous silicon films. 

  • UV Mask Aligner

    UV Mask Align:

    The system (Karl Suss MA-6 UV Mask Aligner) is capable of exposing photoresist patterns down to 1 micron resolution with UV light at two wavelengths (405 nm and 240m nm).

  • Plasma Asher

    Plasma Asher

  • Reflectometer

    Filmetric F20:

    This tool (Filmetrics F20) is a spectro-reflectometer which measures the thickness and reflective index of thin film deposited on flat substrate. It can handle samples with multilayer thin film.

  • Trion General Purpose Reactive Ion Etcher (Cleanroom)

    Trion RIE:

    The general purpose plasma etch tool (Trion Phantom III) is used for etching thin films generally 1 µm or less in thickness.