Equipment and Facilities

Photomasks and direct write: A Heidelberg DWL 66FS UV laser patterning system for the generation of photomasks and direct write onto substrates, such as wafers or individual die. The Heidelberg can provide write resolution capabilities down to 600 nanometers for substrates up to nine square inches. Additionally, it can perform direct write on wafers or individual die and write 128 levels of grayscale.

Contact photolithography: Suss MA6/BA6 and AB-M mask aligners provide front and backside alignment capabilities. Alignment can be performed on individual die up to six-inch wafers.

Image reversal: An ammonia-based photoresist image reversal systems by YES that can also perform HMDS vapor prime.

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) system: Oxford PECVD system capable of depositing silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, oxynitride, amorphous silicon (undoped/doped), polycrystalline silicon (undoped/doped) and silicon carbide. The Oxford tool includes a 650 degrees Celsius, high-temperature chuck and a TEOS delivery system.

Sputtering: Lesker PVD 75 three-source tool and Technics two-source system for deposition of both metals and dielectrics. The PVD 75 features RF, DC, RF/DC stacking and ion beam-assisted sputtering, which includes throttled pressure control and reactive gas mixing.

Available Sputtering & Evaporation Materials [PDF]

Electron beam evaporation: Lesker electron beam evaporation system for depositing a variety of thin films on substrates up to six inches.

Parylene coating: SCS vapor deposition tool for Parylene C.

Molecular Vapor Deposition (MVD): Applied MST MVD system for the conformal deposition of hydrophobic coatings for lubricants, anti-stiction layers, molecular glues, reactive adhesion layers or to change the surface contact angle.

Electroplating: Pulse or continuous DC electroplating systems for Cu and Ni processing using high aspect ratio photoresists. Uniformity is not guaranteed.

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD): A Beneq ALD system for the deposition of alumina (Al2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) films.

Oxidation, diffusion and annealing: Multiple tube furnaces for thermal processes include wet/dry oxidation, high-temperature annealing and boron/phosphorous diffusion.

Rapid Thermal Processes (RTP): An RTP system for silicon-based gate oxide growth and rapid thermal annealing of implanted layers.

Vacuum cure oven: Multiple programmable vacuum ovens capable of heating to 400 degrees Celsius.

Deep Reactive Ion Etch (DRIE): An up to eight-inch wafer Oxford Estrellas DRIE tool for anisotropic (vertical only) silicon deep trench etching using the Bosch process. This tool has a pulsed plate bias to minimize “footing” at oxide etch stops.

Anisotropic silicon wet etching: KOH and TMAH wet etchants for silicon substrates.

Plasma etching: Multiple reactive ion etching (RIE) and oxygen/plasma-based systems capable of providing selective silicon, SiO2 and Si3N4 etching, as well as ashing.

Trion Phantom III reactive ion etch system: A Trion ICP Phantom Minilock III Etcher for etching nitrides, oxides, polymers, metal, compound semiconductor and other materials using fluorine (CHF3, SF6, CF4), oxygen and corrosive (Cl2 and BCl3) chemistries.

Xenon di-fluoride etching: A Xactix XeF2 system for isotropic (vertical and lateral) dry etching of silicon microstructures prone to stiction.

HF Vapor Release Etch Primaxx® : uEtch HF vapor etch release technology is used to remove sacrificial silicon oxide layers, primarily to release silicon microstructures in MEMS devices.

Wafer level bonding/hot embossing: A Suss SB6e for wafer level bonding of silicon/glass anodic bonding or hot embossing. All processes are capable of a five-micron alignment with our adjacent Suss MA6/BA6 mask aligner.

Critical point dryer: A critical point CO2 dryer for drying substrates, where stiction can be removed.

Chemical mechanical polishing system: Logitech’s chemical mechanical polishing systems are highly versatile and are designed for use in polishing applications where geometric precision and surface quality are of paramount importance.

Thin film stress measurement: A Toho thin film stress measurement system using non-contact multi-wavelength surface flatness techniques for evaluating thin film stresses from room temperature to 500 degrees Celsius.

3-D contact profiling: A Veeco contact profilometer that can provide down to a 7.5-angstrom step height measurement with a vertical range up to one millimeter and a maximum scan length of 200 millimeters. The low stylus force allows scratch-free measurement of soft materials.

Non-contact 3D optical profiler: A Zygo non-contact profilometer that is capable of measuring the surface topology of microscale systems. Its capabilities include a field stitching and a dynamic module for measuring MEMS devices during actuation.

Testing: Veeco FPP-5000 four-point probe and a suite of probe stations and electronic test instruments for measuring sheet resistance, TCR, I-V curves, C-V curves and device performance.

Thin film measurement system: Filmetrics system for non-contact thin film thickness measurements and determining optical constants of single and multilayer films.

Ellipsometry: Woollam Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometer (VASE) for non-contact thin film thickness measurements and determining optical constants of single and multilayer films.

Dicing: A Disco programmable saw for dicing silicon, glass and alternative substrates up to a six-inch diameter.

Wire bonding: Multiple Kulicke and Soffa wedge, ball and deep access wire bonders for aluminum and gold one millimeter wire bonding.

Flip chip packaging: A Finetech fineplacer “pico” system for flip chip die placement accuracy up to five microns. This tool can accommodate surface-mount components SMCs with a side length up to 17 millimeters.

Printed Circuit Boards (PCB): An LPKF automated milling system for custom printed circuit boards with a resolution of 100 microns and hole diameters down to 150 micrometers. A vacuum table and fiducial recognition camera system ensure precise front-to-back registration. Applications include through-hole and surface mount PCBs, stencils, templates and engraved panels.

Thermo Fisher Apreo C LoVac field emission Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM): high and low voltage ultra-high resolution capabilities, variable pressure, Back-Scattered Detector (BSD), Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS).

Ted Pella: Gold/ Gold-Palladium Sputter Coater

Hitachi HT7700: Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)

Asylum MFP-3D-Bio AFM and accessories: Liquid cell option for biomaterials, temperature and vibration control.

Asylum MFP-3D Conductive AFM

Quantum Focus Instruments (QFI): mid-wave thermal imaging system for capturing thermal images and video of devices featuring 0.1 degrees Celsius temperature and five micrometer spatial resolutions.