About NNIN at Penn State
The Penn State University Nanofabrication Facilities NNIN site provides users with access to facilities that enable fabrication of a wide range of devices to support fundamental and applied research in diverse fields spanning electronics to medicine. The primary focus of the PSU nanofabrication facility within the network is to make available specialized instruments and technical support in areas that mirror our faculty research strengths, including chemical and molecular-scale nanotechnology; electronics, optics, and MEMS; materials and physical sciences; and education. To this end, NNIN-supported technical liaisons and engineering staff have made significant progress in transitioning nanoscale materials synthesis, chemical and molecular film patterning and deposition, complex ferroelectric oxide thin film deposition, and device fabrication processes from leading PSU research centers and faculty laboratories to the open-access NNIN user facility.
The Penn State University Nanofabrication Facilities consist of approximately 6000 square feet of clean room space and over 3000 square feet of supporting non-clean laboratory space that is located at our Materials Research Institute (MRI), Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), and Electrical Engineering West (EEW) Building. The largest laboratory in MRI contains clean process bays and adjoining semi-clean cluster areas that support all aspects of deposition and etching, micro- and nanolithography, and process metrology equipment (see Facilities, at left and visit the nnin.org website for complete instrument list). The second Keck Smart Materials Laboratory cleanroom in MRL contains several instruments specialized for complex ferroelectric oxide materials processing, which includes oxide thin film deposition (e.g., PZT, PLZT, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, etc.) and metal contact sputter deposition. The third laboratory in EEW contains additional process bays that support specialized MEMS processing systems for silicon and ferroelectric oxide device fabrication, which include new deep silicon and oxide reactive ion etch (RIE) tools and a XeF2 silicon release etch tool.
The core Nanofabrication and Characterization facilities will be relocated to a new 248,000 gross sq. ft. interdisciplinary Materials and Life Sciences Building on central campus. Construction is beginning in spring 2008, with a targeted occupancy date of spring 2011. The building will house a new 10,000 sq. ft. class 100/1000 clean room that is adjacent to an equal amount of quiet (vibration and electromagnetic) climate controlled space for sensitive characterization instruments.
Please see Focus Area, at left, for more information on our technical areas of expertise.
