Modernization of Multi-Scale Characterization, Analysis, and Synthesis Facility for Materials and Devices

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该奖项支持北德克萨斯大学（UNT）高级研究与技术中心（CART）内约2900平方英尺的空间的翻新和现代化，该中心位于大学的探索公园（主校区以北约4.5英里）。作为CART的一部分，UNT将创建一个现代化的模型设施，称为UNT纳米制造分析和研究设施（NARF），这将是一个开放的“一站式商店”，用于跨多个长度和时间尺度的先进设备制造和分析。翻新将整合目前空间分布的先进表征和分析仪器；升级空间，包括高速网络连接，允许远程访问和控制这些仪器；并将这个空间与洁净室和技术孵化器结合起来。智力优势：NARF将使用“开放系统设计”架构来最大限度地协作和共享设备的使用，“集成制造”以最大限度地利用洁净室和技术孵化器的共同位置为特征的创业活动，以及“社区/学校友好”环境，研究人员在其中分享结果并实时或通过远程向访客解释他们的工作。该设施将拥有独特的三种工具，包括双光束聚焦离子束仪器，高分辨率透射电子显微镜和局部电极原子探针，能够对材料的结构和化学进行真正的原子尺度分析，以及许多其他先进的仪器，彼此直接接近。NARF将促进涉及纳米级表征和分析的基础研究，应用于各种材料系统和设备，并将在UNT首次允许真正的3D表征纳米级结构和半导体设备中特定组件和故障部位的组成，以及用于航空航天，生物医学和能源相关应用的混合材料界面。更广泛的影响：NARF实现的主要影响之一将是研究生和本科生，博士后和来自行业的外部研究人员在使用复杂的表征和分析设备方面的研究培训。NARF将在同一屋檐下为研究人员提供一系列不同的设备，并使他们能够欣赏这些不同技术所提供的新颖研究可能性。如果设备是孤立的，并且位于校园内地理位置分散的位置，那么这种影响是不可能的，就像目前一样。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award supports the renovation and modernization of approximately 2,900 square feet of space within the University of North Texas' (UNT) Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART), located in the university's Discovery Park (about 4.5 miles north of the main campus). As part of CART, UNT will create a modern, model facility, called the UNT Nanofabrication Analysis and Research Facility (NARF), which is to be an open-access "one-stop-shop" for advanced device fabrication and analysis across multiple length and time scales. The renovations will consolidate currently spatially distributed, advanced characterization and analysis instruments; upgrade the space to include high speed cyber connectivity permitting remote access and control of these instruments; and integrate this space with a clean room and technology incubator.Intellectual Merit: NARF will use "open system design" architecture to maximize collaboration and shared use of equipment, "integration for fabrication" to maximize entrepreneurial activities characterized by co-location of a clean room and technology incubator, and a "community/school-friendly" setting, where researchers share results and explain their work in real-time or via distance to visitors. The facility will host a unique trio of tools consisting of a dual-beam focused ion beam instrument, a high resolution transmission electron microscope, and a local electrode atom probe, capable of true atomic scale analysis of the structure and chemistry of materials, as well as many other advanced instruments, into direct proximity of one another. NARF will foster fundamental research involving nanoscale characterization and analysis applied to a wide variety of materials systems and devices, and will allow for the first time at UNT, true 3D characterization of the nanoscale structure and composition of specific components and failure sites in semiconductor devices, as well as interfaces in hybrid materials for aerospace, biomedical, and energy-related applications. Broader Impacts: One of the primary impacts enabled by NARF will be the research training of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as post-docs and external researchers from industry, in the use of sophisticated characterization and analysis equipment. NARF will provide researchers a range of different equipment under one roof and allow them to appreciate the novel research possibilities afforded by these various techniques. Such an impact is not possible if the equipment is isolated and located at geographically scattered locations across the campus, as it is currently.