SMIF Equipment

Equipment & Procedures

SMIF consists of an Instrumentation Laboratory for the characterization and analysis of materials, and a Fabrication Laboratory for the fabrication of devices and micro/nano-structures.

All equipment is available to trained and certified users as follows:

  • Cleanroom Fabrication Lab: 7am to 12midnight, 7 days a week
  • All other Labs: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Cleanroom
Code Title Model Applications (short)
ACIDHOOD1 Small Acid Chemical Hood Air Control Acid Hood

For acid chemical processing

ACIDHOOD2 Large ADA Acid Chemical Hood Air Control Acid Hood

For acid chemical processing

ALDE1 Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PE-ALD) System Kurt Lesker ALD-150LX

Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PE-ALD)

ARRAY1 Liquid Array Printer Scienion S11 sciFlexarrayer

Liquid Array Printing

ASH2 Plasma Asher Glow Research AutoGlow 200

O2 / Ar plasma ashing of photoresist and other organic materials

BIOHOOD1 Biological Hood Biological Hood

Biological Hood

BIOHOOD2 Biological Hood Biological Hood

Biological Hood

COATHOOD1 Spin Coat Hood - RESIST ONLY Air Control Spin Coat Hood

For spin coating photoresist and EBL resists ONLY

COATHOOD2 Spin Coat Hood - ANY MATERIAL Air Control Spin Coat Hood

For spin coating materials

DEVHOOD1 Develop Hood Air Control Develop Hood

For photoresist base develop processing

EVAP1 E-Beam Metal Evaporator CHA Industries Solution E-Beam

Deposition of thin metal films

EVAP2 E-beam & Thermal Metal Evaporator Kurt Lesker PVD 75

E-beam and thermal evaporation of metal films

FURN2-Tube1 High Temperature Anneal N-type doping Tempress 6304 4-Stack Furnace

High Temperature Annealing (750C-1050C) in Nitrogen used for N-type doped substrates

FURN2-Tube2 Dry Oxidation Tempress 6304 4-Stack Furnace

Dry oxidation (950C-1050C) in Oxygen

FURN2-Tube3 Low Temp Anneal and High Temp Anneal for P-type doping Tempress 6304 4-Stack Furnace

Low Temperature Annealing (400C-600C) in Nitrogen or Forming Gas and High Temp Annealing (up to 1050C) in Nitrogen of P-type substrates

KEY1 3D Optical/Laser Confocal Profiler VK-X3050

3D surface profiling via optical, focus variation, laser confocal and while light interferometry

NANO1 Film Thickness Measurement Nanometrics 210

Film thickness measurements up to 50mm

OVEN2 Bake Oven Thermo Scientific Lindberg/Blue M General-Purpose Oven

Annealing, baking and curing up to 260C in air

OVEN5 Vacuum Bake Oven Fisher Scientific Isotemp Model 282A

Vacuum and nitrogen baking and curing

OVEN6 PDMS Oven Barnstead/Thermolyne Type 19200

Low temperature oven for baking and curing PDMS and similar materials

PECVD1 Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition System Advanced Vacuum Vision 310

PECVD deposition of Oxide, Nitride, and Oxynitride films

PHOTO1 Mask Aligner Suss MicroTec MJB3

Photolithographic patterning

PHOTO2 Frontside/Backside Mask Aligner Karl Suss MA6/BA6

For Topside or Backside photo alignment and exposure

PROBE2 Probe Station Cascade EPS150 Triax

The probe station consists of a manual probe system with 4 independent probe micro-manipulators. It is configured with a Keithley 2450 SMU and an Agilent LCR meter for measuring current, voltage, resistance, capacitance, and conductance of devices and structures. This system also includes a 4 point resistivity probing system for making sheet-resistance and resistivity measurements of substrates and films.

PROF2 Profilometer Bruker Dektak 150

Surface profiling and step height measurements

RIE1 Oxide/Nitride/Polymer Reactive Ion Etcher Trion Technology Phantom II

Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) of oxide, nitride, and polymer films with fluorine and oxygen chemistries

RIE2 III-V Reactive Ion Etcher Trion Technology Minilock II

Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) of compound III-V semiconductors using chlorine and bromine based chemistries

RIE3 Silicon DRIE SPTS Pegasus Deep Silicon Etcher

Deep Silicon Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE)

RTA1 Rapid Thermal Anneal System Jipelec JetFirst 100

Rapid thermal annealing up to 1000C in air, vacuum, N2, or forming gas (N2/H2)

SCOPE1 Microscope w/ camera (manual) Nikon Eclipse ME600

Optical Microscopy

SCOPE4 Nomarski Microsope w/camera Zeiss AxioImager

BF, DF, and Nomarski (DIC) optical microscopy

SOLVHOOD1 Small Solvent Chemical Hood Air Control Solvent Hood

For solvent chemical processing

SOLVHOOD2 Large ADA Solvent Chemical Hood Air Control Solvent Hood

For solvent chemical processing (including ultrasonics)

SPUT2 RF Dielectric Sputter System Kurt Lesker PVD 75

RF sputter coating of dielectric materials

SPUT3 DC Sputter System Kurt Lesker PVD 75

DC sputter coating of metals

THINKY1 Thinky PDMS Mixer/Degasser Thinky Mixer AR-100

Mixing and degassing PDMS

EBL
Code Title Model Applications (short)
EBL1 E-Beam Lithography System Elionix ELS-7500 EX E-Beam Lithography System

Electron Beam Lithography and SEM imaging

Sample Prep Room
Code Title Model Applications (short)
ACIDHOOD3 Prep/Offline Acid Chemical Hood Air Control Acid Hood

For acid chemical processing in a non-cleanroom environment

CPD1 Critical Point Dryer Bal-Tec CPD 030

Critical Point CO2 Drying of non-biological samples

CPD3 Critical Point Dryer LADD CPD3

Critical Point CO2 Drying

EVAP3 Thermal Evaporator JEOL IB-29500VED

Thermal Evaporation

GLOW1 PELCO Glow Discharge System easiGlow 91000

Designed to make TEM carbon support grids hydrophilic.

IMILL1 Ion Beam Milling System Leica EM TIC 3x

Uses high-energy argon-ion beam to mill away material, creates smooth surfaces for electron microscopy or atomic force microscopy samples.

OVEN1 High Temperature Bake Oven Carbolite Gero LHT 6/30

Annealing, baking and curing up to 600C in an N2 ambient

OVEN4 Low Temperature Oven for Non-Hazardous Materials VWR 1350U

Low temperature baking of non-hazardous materials up to 100C

PARYL1 Parylene Coater Cookson Electronics PDS 2010 LABCOTER2

Accurate deposition of parylene films

SAW3 Dicing Saw Disco DAD3220

Programmed dicing of silicon and other substrates

SCOPE5 Zeiss AxioImager Zeiss AxioImager

Epi BF, Cy3, Cy5 Fluorescence and Bright Field Optical Microscopy

SCOPE7 Stereo Microscope American Scope SM-4TZ-FRL

Stereo Microscope

SOLVHOOD3 Prep/Offline Solvent Chemical Hood Air Control Solvent Hood

For solvent chemical processing in a non-cleanroom environment

SPUT6 Sputter Coater Denton Desk V

Deposition of a gold film

VITRO1 Vitrobot FEI Mark IV

Vitrifies suspension samples for imaging with the cryo-TEM.

VITRO2 Vitrobot FEI Mark IV

Vitrifies suspension samples for imaging with the cryo-TEM.

VITROHOOD1 Vitrobot Hood Air Control

For preparing Cryo-TEM and other TEM samples.

WIBO1 Wire Bonder West Bond 747677E

Wire bonding to interconnect wire leads to semiconductor, hybrid, or microwave devices.

Electron Microscopes
Code Title Model Applications (short)
MTOME2 Ultramicrotome with cryo chamber Leica Ultracut UC7 with Cryo Chamber

For thin sectioning embedded biological samples for TEM or for thin sectioning frozen samples for AFM or EM.

SEM3 Scanning Electron Microscope with EDS Detector Apreo S by ThermoFisher Scientific (formerly FEI)

The SEM is a high magnification imaging tool

SEM4 Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope Hitachi TM3030Plus Tabletop SEM

The SEM is a tabletop high magnification imaging tool with secondary electron and backscattered electron detectors.

TEM2 Transmission Electron Microscope FEI Tecnai G² Twin

The TEM is a high magnification imaging tool. Resolution is on the order of 0.3nm

TEM3 Cryo Transmission Electron Microscope ThermoFisher Krios G3i Cryo TEM

Cryo TEM for single particle analysis

TEM4 Cryo Transmission Electron Microscope ThermoFisher Tundra Cryo TEM

Cryo TEM for screening

MicroCT
Code Title Model Applications (short)
MICROCT1 High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Scanner Nikon XTH 225 ST

X-ray Imaging, Non-destructive CT, Quality Assurance, CAD vs. Actual Comparison (GD&T), Non-Destructive Internal Inspection, 3D Digitization, 3D Metrology, Surface Rendering, Morphology, Morphometrics

PRINT3D 3D Printer FormLabs Form 3+

3D printing .STL or .OBJ 3D models created from software programs like CAD, or directly from MicroCT data.

RECO1 Reconstruction PC for MicroCT RECO1

X-ray CT Reconstruction of Nikon CT Data, Analysis of CT Data, Image Processing, 3D Visualization and Animation, CT Segmentation, CAD vs. Actual Comparison, Volume Rendering, Morphometric Data Collection, Quality Assurance, Graphics Work

RECO2 Reconstruction PC for MicroCT RECO2

X-ray CT Reconstruction of Nikon CT Data, Quick Analysis of CT Data, Image Processing, Quick Volume Rendering

RECO3 Analysis PC for MicroCT Velocity S58SQ - Quadro M6000

Analysis of CT Data, Image Processing, 3D Visualization and Animation, CT Segmentation, CAD vs. Actual Comparison, Volume Rendering, Morphometric Data Collection, Quality Assurance, Graphics Work

X-Ray Characterization
Code Title Model Applications (short)
XPS1 X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer Kratos Analytical Axis Ultra

XPS is a technique for the detection of variations in chemical composition and oxidation state. The AXIS Ultra provides a high energy resolution capability for both conductive and insulating samples.

XRD2 X-Ray Diffractometer Anton Paar XRDynamic 500

X-Ray Diffraction of Materials from -190C to 1200C

Optical Spectroscopy
Code Title Model Applications (short)
OPT3 RAMAN/PL Horiba Jobin Yvon LabRam ARAMIS

Raman and PL spectroscopy

OPT4 UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer with Integrating Sphere Shimadzu UV-3600i

Optical characterization of samples over UV-Vis-NIR wavelengths

OPT5 FTIR Spectrometer with Microscope ThermoFisher Nicolet iS50 with RaptIR+

Infrared characterization of samples for determination of chemical species and molecular structure via transmission or attenuated total reflectance (ATR) measurements

SPR1 Surface Plasmon Resonance System Cytiva Biacore T200

Biacore T200 is a versatile and precise surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system that provides a wide range of high-quality molecular interaction data.

AFM Lab
Code Title Model Applications (short)
AFM2 Atomic Force Microscope Asylum Cypher Atomic Force Microscope

Asylum Cypher ES Environmental atomic force microscope. This AFM allows for temperature control and fluid or gas perfusion. It also has blueDrive photothermal excitation, which, by directly exciting the cantilever photothermally, provides significant ease of use and performance benefits for imaging topography, mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties in air and liquids.

AFM3 Jupiter Atomic Force Microscope Asylum Research Jupiter XR AFM

Atomic force microscope scans mechanical probe across a sample to create topographical map of surface features with nanometer resolution.

HUMMINK1 Hummink NAZCA Precision Capillary Printer NAZCA

For micron and sub-micron printing (e.g. conducting traces, waveguides, polymer molds, etc.)

ZYGO1 3D Optical Profiler Zygo NewView 5000

The 3-D Optical Profiler uses interferometry for imaging and quantifying topographical features such as step heights, critical dimensions, curvature, and roughness.

Soft Materials Lab - B606
Code Title Model Applications (short)
CONFOCAL1 Confocal Microscope Leica Stellaris 5

Confocal Microscope Imaging

DSC1 Differential Scanning Calorimeter TA Instruments DSC 2500

DSC: for thermal analysis of materials such as the glass transition (Tg), melting, crystallization, cure reactions, onset of oxidation, and heats of transitions (enthalpy). 

GON1 Goniometer Ramé-hart Model 290 Automated Goniometer / Tensiometer
LYO1 Lyophilizer Labconco FreeZone 2.5 Liter Benchtop Freeze Dryer
PLAP1 Polishing and Lapping Machine Logitech PM5

Polishing and Lapping

RHEO1 Rheometer Anton Paar MCR 302
RSA2 RSA-G2 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer TA Instruments RSA-G2 Solids Analyzer

Dynamical mechanical characterization of polymeric materials as a function of time, temperature and frequency. Glass transition (Tg).

SAXS2 Small Angle X-Ray Scattering - Point Source SAXSLab Ganesha

Point collimated pinhole system for WAXS, MAXS, SAXS and Extreme SAXS of nano-particles for shape & structure analysis; GI-SAXS & GI-WAXS of surfaces for typography

SCOPE3 Fluorescence Microscope w/camera Zeiss AxioImager

Fluorescence and Optical Microscopy