MRI: Acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Reactive-Ion Etching System for Research and Education in Nanophotonics, Nanoelectronics and Nano-Bio Devices

这笔重大研究仪器(MRI)资金将支持购买电感耦合等离子体反应离子刻蚀(ICP-RIE)系统，以实现纳米光子学、纳米电子学和纳米生物设备的基础研究和教育。此次收购MRI的目的是促进新的和现有的科学和工程领域的多学科研究，促进教育课程的开发，并促进罗切斯特理工学院(RIT)的拓展活动。ICP-RIE系统将实现RIT和罗切斯特地区目前不存在的光子、电子和生物器件制造能力。所要求的ICP-RIE系统将为各种材料系统提供干法刻蚀能力，如化合物半导体、介电材料和金属，具有快速的刻蚀速度、良好控制的选择性和良好的一致性。该仪器对于实现基于III-氮化物的发光二极管(LED)和激光器的基础研究和教育、将坚固且低功率的III-V量子点(QD)激光器与硅光子学、III-V隧道场效应晶体管、用于计算的存储设备、QD和纳米线光伏、用于惯性约束聚变研究的III-氮化物光电探测器、纳米等离子体设备以及用于高效生物分子转移的纳米生物设备的无缝集成至关重要。所要求的仪器将是RIT的第一个电感耦合等离子体干法刻蚀工具，它将由科学和工程领域的所有学科的研究小组与微系统工程博士计划和工程博士计划培训的学生共享。罗切斯特地区的外部研究小组也将共享该工具，以加强RIT与该地区其他大学、国家实验室和小企业之间的研究和合作。ICP-RIE系统将被指定为一个共享的用户设施，可用于RIT本科生和研究生的新课程和设备制造实验室部门的开发，这些学生可以接受下一代科学家和工程师的培训。拟议仪器提供的制造能力将有利于RIT几门以纳米制造和半导体器件为重点的基础课程和实验部分的课程开发。利用干蚀刻机，还可以通过RIT推广活动，向K-12学生和教师设计光子和电子器件的演示实验，从而激发K-12学生未来追求科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科的兴趣。还将促进与此类示范实验的连通性，以培训RIT现有的女性和代表性不足的少数族裔学生。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) funding will support the acquisition of an inductively coupled plasma reactive-ion etching (ICP-RIE) system to enable fundamental research and education in nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and nano-bio devices. The objective of this MRI acquisition is to facilitate new and existing multidisciplinary research in science and engineering, enable educational curriculum development, and promote outreach activities at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The ICP-RIE system will enable photonic, electronic and bio device fabrication capability that does not exist presently at RIT and Rochester region. The requested ICP-RIE system will provide dry etching capability for various material systems such as compound semiconductors, dielectric materials, and metals with fast etching rate, well-controlled selectivity, and promising uniformity. The instrument is essential to enable fundamental research and education on III-Nitride based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers, seamless integration of robust and low-powered III-V quantum dot (QD) lasers with silicon photonics, III-V tunneling field effect transistor, memory devices for computing, QD and nanowire photovoltaics, III-Nitride photodetectors for inertial confinement fusion research, nanoplasmonic devices, and nan-bio devices for efficient biomolecule transfer. The requested instrument will be the first ICP dry etcher tool at RIT, which will be shared by research groups across all disciplines in science and engineering with students trained from Microsystems Engineering Ph.D. program and Ph.D. in Engineering program. The tool will also be shared by external research groups in Rochester region to enhance research and collaborations between RIT and other colleges, national labs, and small businesses in the region. The ICP-RIE system will be designated as a shared user facility, available to new curriculum and lab section development on device fabrications for both undergraduate and graduate students at RIT, whom can be trained for next-generation scientists and engineers. The fabrication capability provided by the proposed instrument would benefit curriculum development at RIT for several fundamental courses and lab sections focused on nanofabrication and semiconductor devices. Demonstration experiments on photonic and electronic devices can also be designed to K-12 students and teachers through RIT outreach activities by the use of the dry etcher, which can stimulate K-12 students' interest to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the future. Connectivity with such demonstration experiments will also be promoted to train existing women and underrepresented minority students at RIT.