Teaching Cleanroom
CNEU has a teaching cleanroom constructed for, and dedicated to, delivering a hands-on nanotechnology synthesis, fabrication, and characterization experience for both undergraduate and graduate students. This class 10,000 cleanroom space is also equipped to deliver a remote operating experience for use in high school and college classrooms across the country.
Hands-on Experience
Cleanroom
The cleanroom contains all of the tools that are sensitive to particle contamination in the lab. Air inside the cleanroom is filtered continuously…
AFM
An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a method of measuring surface topography on a scale of Angstroms to 100 microns. This technique uses a probe or tip on the…
Ellipsometer
Ellipsometry is based on the measurement of the light polarization change upon reflection from a sample surface or interface. This very sensitive measurement…
Evaporator
The process of evaporation starts with metals in a solid state. These source metals are heated in a tungsten crucible to a liquid state and then to a gaseous state.
FESEM
Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) provides topographical and elemental information at magnifications of 10x to 300,000x.
Furnace
Furnaces are used to grow films that electrically insulate components from one another on a wafer. This process is limited to materials that have the ability to oxidize.
LPCVD
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is a versatile technique often used in the semiconductor industry for deposition of material on various substrates, such as silicon nitride.
Optical Microscope
An optical microscope can be used to image many different samples with relatively large feature sizes. Light reflects off the surface of the sample, allowing an optical…
Profilometer
Profilometers can be used to measure features on the scale of 10’s of nm to the µm level. They are particularly useful for measuring film roughness, film thickness…
RIE
There are several important uses for reactive ion etching (RIE). These include surface cleaning, roughening mirror finish wafers for biological applications, and highly…
Sputter Coater
DC Diode Sputtering is good for depositing metal films including metal alloys that cannot be evaporated. High energy ions are accelerated into a solid target causing atoms to break free…
Sputtering Tool
Sputtering is good for depositing many film coatings. It is particularly good for depositing films, including alloys and dielectrics, that cannot be evaporated since it does not require…