Metrology, etching and contact annealing tools for fabrication of Microsystems and Nanotechnology devices; transistor-VCSELs novel materials, sensors, lab-on-a-chip systems

这笔赠款用于清洁设备，这对UBC在纳米技术领域的制造研究工作至关重要。有两种测量工具将使新材料和设备的精确表征成为可能：1)薄膜测量系统允许我们确定薄膜的厚度和光学性质，例如光致抗蚀剂、半导体如硅、绝缘体如氧化物、过渡金属氧化物超导体和聚合物。2)基于触笔的表面轮廓仪能够测量薄膜不透明(例如金属)、透明、或者用于表征表面蚀刻的深度。自动化的XY阶段提供晶片的映射以表征蚀刻均匀性，以及确定薄膜应力。这笔赠款也用于升级两台设备：1)升级到ECR等离子蚀刻机以添加SF6气体，从而能够选择性地在AlGaAs上蚀刻GaAs和蚀刻Si；以及2)升级到带有控制软件的快速热处理设备，以提高重复性、健壮性和可用性，用于对我们器件上的金属接触进行退火。*这笔赠款将支持以下几个研究项目：1)我们正在设计和制造一种新的设备，晶体管VCSEL，由高频异质结双极晶体管(HBT)和垂直腔面发射激光器(VCSEL)集成而成。这项革命性的半导体激光发射机技术将增加光通信网络的容量，并实现芯片间光互连；2)光子晶体器件的纳米制造；3)用于光电子应用的半导体材料研究，超导过渡金属氧化物；4)碳纳米管器件；5)硅纳米线器件；6)聚合物气体传感器；7)可植入传感器；8)神经探头；9)芯片实验室系统。

This grant is for clean-room equipment critical for UBC's fabrication research efforts in the nanotechnology area.  Two metrology tools will enable the precise characterization of the novel materials and devices: 1) A Thin-Film Measurement System allows us to determine the thickness and optical properties of thin-films, such as photoresist, semiconductors such as silicon, insulators such as oxides, transition metal oxide superconductors and polymers.  2) A stylus-based surface profilometer enables measurements of topology where the thin-films are opaque (e.g. metals), transparent, or for characterizing the depth of surface etches.  The automated XY stage provides mapping of the wafer to characterize etching uniformity, as well as to determine the thin-film stress.    This grant is also for upgrades of two equipment: 1) upgrade to the ECR plasma etcher to add SF6 gas, which enables the selective etching of GaAs over AlGaAs and etching of Si, and 2) upgrade to the Rapid Thermal Anneal equipment with control software to improve reproducibility, robustness and usability, for annealing metal contacts on our devices.    Several research programmes will be supported by this grant: 1) We are designing and fabricating a new device, a Transistor VCSEL, which is the integration of a high frequency Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) with a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL).  This revolutionary semiconductor laser transmitter technology will increase the capacity of optical communication networks, and enable inter-chip optical interconnects;  2) Nanofabrication of Photonic Crystal devices; 3) Semiconductor material research for optoelectronic applications, superconductor transition metal oxides; 4) Carbon Nanotube devices; 5) Si Nanowire devices; 6) Polymer gas sensors; 7) Implantable sensors; 8) Neural probes; and 9) Lab-on-a-chip systems.