UKNIBC Expanding the UK National High Energy Implant Facility

这项提议要求的设备将加强现有的EPSRC国家研究设施，该设施为英国学术界和工业界提供离子注入和照射的设施。离子注入是半导体行业使用的一种技术，将掺杂原子引入半导体器件的特定区域。它可以以极高的控制水平和精度在大范围内做到这一点。离子注入机在半导体器件的制造过程中被多次使用，在世界各地的生产线制造厂中得到了广泛的利用。所有这些都不适用于研发项目，因为生产线流程受到严格控制，不允许工艺流程中的任何中断。因此，研发依赖于独立的设施，例如由萨里的英国国家离子束中心提供的设施。涉及高能注入(离子加速到1 mV以上)的研发项目在光电子学和太阳能电池研究领域很常见，这些领域既需要深注入，也需要对元件进行光学限制。离子辐照使用相同的高能加速器在结构材料中产生辐射损伤，以模拟核反应堆容器内的条件。中子(以及其他电离辐射)辐照对反应堆材料的长期影响是众所周知的，如脆化、蠕变和膨胀。在那里，寻找改进的材料是延长核反应堆寿命和运行成本的关键。这些效应可能需要几十年才能在反应堆中显现。辐照设备允许在离子束下在几十个小时内观察到这些效应。高能离子的使用对于在远离材料表面适当的地方产生辐射损伤尤为重要，这是众所周知的干扰影响。英国学术界和工业界在这方面的研究一直在稳步增长，萨里的高能离子注入机的使用量自30年前安装以来已经增加了两倍多。依赖一台有30年历史的机器来提供这项服务是不理想的，需要第二台机器来提供更高的可用性和更强大的服务。目前，一些离子种类可能很难生产，并在提取产生的少量离子时占用大量机器时间。由于对单机的需求很高，因此很难证明花在这些应用上的时间是合理的。第二个植入器将提供更强大的服务，提供故障备份，并为用户提供额外的时间，而长途运行不会如此严重地阻碍其他用户。

The equipment requested in this proposal will strengthen the existing EPSRC National Research Facility which provides access to UK academics and industry with facilities for ion implantation and irradiation.Ion Implantation is a technique used to by the semiconductor industry to introduce dopant atoms into specific regions of semiconductor devices. It can do this with extremely high levels of control and accuracy and over large areas. Ion implanters are used many times in the fabrication process of semiconductor devices and are heavily utilized in production line fabrication plants around the world. None of these are available for R&D programs, as the production line process is tightly controlled and does not allow for any interruption in the process flow. Consequently R&D relies upon stand alone facilities, such as the one provided by the UK National Ion Beam Centre at Surrey. R&D programs involving high energy implantation (ions accelerated to a potential over 1MV) are common in opto-electronics and solar cell research areas, where deep implants are required both doping and optical confinement of components. Ion Irradiation uses the same high energy accelerator to produce radiation damage in structural materials to simulate the conditions inside nuclear reactor vessels. The long term effects of neutron (as well as other ionising radiation) irradiation on reactor materials is well known, such as embrittlement, creep and swelling. There search for improved materials is key to improving the lifetime and running costs of nuclear reactors. These effects may take decades to manifest in a reactor. The irradiation facility allows these effects to be observed in a few tens of hours under the ion beam. The use of high energy ions is particularly important to produce the radiation damage suitably far away from the surface of the material, which is known to be a perturbing influence.Research in these areas in the UK from both academia and industry has grown steadily and the use of the high energy ion implanter at Surrey has more than tripled since the machine was installed 30 years ago. The reliance on a single 30 year old machine to provide this service is not ideal and a second machine is requested to provide increased availability as well as a more robust service. Currently some ion species can be "challenging" to produce and take up large amounts of machine time in extracting the small numbers of ions generated. With high demand on the single machine it can be more difficult to justify the time spent on these applications. A second implanter will allow a more robust service, providing back up against failure, as well as providing additional time to users and long runs will not hold up other users so drastically.