Facilities

"We've been pleased with the excellent training the Penn State Center for Dielectric Studies graduates have received. They have become significant contributors to our success."
Carl L. Eggerding
AVX Corporation

CDS is based in the Pennsylvania State University's 70,000 square foot Materials Research Laboratory, which is designed for the needs of interdisciplinary materials research. The laboratory maintains central facilities common to various types of research and is capable of conducting scanning electron microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy, state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, and wet chemical analysis. CDS and its members have access to other central facilities at the Pennsylvania State University, such as the Nanofabrication Laboratory and the Materials Characterization Laboratory. The Materials Characterization Laboratory has state-of-the-art surface analysis equipment and high resolution electron microscopy. Since 2001, the range of facilities and expertise within the CDS has been broadened to include those at our partner university, Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Specialized Facilities at Penn State:

Specialized Facilities at MS&T:

The Graduate Center for Materials Research (MRC) was started on the Missouri S&T campus over 40 years ago to promote and foster interdisciplinary research related to materials science and engineering. MRC's main objective is graduate education in interdisciplinary research related to materials. As with all university related efforts, the primary goal is to train and educate students in such a way that advances knowledge in the field of study. The center has two major components: (1) fostering intra- and inter-departmental faculty research collaborations and (2) providing and maintaining common use equipment, especially those in the Advanced Materials Characterization Lab, that are beyond the means of individual faculty. The center houses and maintains equipment and laboratory space in Straumanis Hall and McNutt Hall that is accessible to all members of CDS. Equipment includes a focused ion beam electron microscope; scanning electron microscopes; a transmission electron microscope; an Auger electron spectrometer; an x-ray photoelectron spectrometer; tensile, fatigue, and vibration mechanical testing systems; x-ray diffraction units; thermal analysis and mass spectrometry systems; optical and electrical characterization equipment; a photolithography exposure system; deposition and etching units; high temperature furnaces, and a variety of analytical and processing instruments.