MRI: Acquisition of a Plasma Etching System for Multidisciplinary Research and Education

摘要：美国扬斯敦州立大学（YSU）及其工业合作伙伴正在积极开展各种材料的研究，包括半导体、聚合物、碳纳米管、陶瓷-金属复合材料和功能材料。加工这些材料的主要要求是能够蚀刻出器件所需的图案。来自主要研究仪器计划的资金为获得电感耦合等离子体蚀刻仪器提供了支持。该仪器使制造高效设备的进步成为可能，并有助于教育和培训K-12，本科生和研究生以及高中科学教师。随着YSU材料科学与工程新博士项目的启动，该仪器为至少10个当前研究项目提供了关键的培训和研究工具，每年为30多名博士、硕士研究生和博士后以及300多名本科生提供培训，因为它完全融入了YSU的本科和研究生课程。PI和联合PI积极参与各种外联和面向少数族裔的项目，如扬斯敦地区物理联盟、少数族裔学生暑期STEM和SEED项目，这些项目为从代表性不足的群体中招募学生提供了一个平台，使其能够参与该工具所支持的研究活动。技术：YSU及其工业合作伙伴的多学科材料相关研究活动包括用于高功率电子和短波长的光电器件的宽带隙半导体，用于各种光子应用的多层聚合物系统，用于化学和生物传感器应用的碳纳米管，用于军事作战应用的陶瓷-金属复合材料，以及用于微机电系统的功能材料。高密度等离子体蚀刻为相关功能器件设计的制造提供了重要的能力。此次收购电感耦合等离子体蚀刻系统的目的是支持YSU的多学科研究和教育。与YSU最近获得的现有最先进的电子显微镜和光刻工具一起，该设备能够更好地了解这些材料的潜在结构，以便开发光电和纳米/微尺度设备，并阐明控制光子和载流子与纳米尺寸结构相互作用的基本科学过程。

AbstractNon-Technical: Youngstown State University (YSU) and its industrial partners are aggressively pursuing research in various materials including semiconductors, polymers, carbon nanotubes, ceramic-metallic composites and functional materials. A major requirement in processing these materials is the ability to etch desired patterns for devices. Funds from the Major Research Instrumentation program provide support for acquisition of an inductively-coupled plasma etching instrument. This instrument enables advances in fabricating efficient devices and helps to educate and train K-12, undergraduate & graduate students and high school science teachers. With the launch of YSU's new PhD program in Materials Science & Engineering, this instrument provides a pivotal training and research tool for use in at least 10 current research projects and provides training to over 30 PhD and MS graduate students and postdocs, and more than 300 undergraduate students per year as it is fully integrated into undergraduate and graduate curriculum at YSU. The PI and co-PIs actively participate in various outreach and minority-oriented programs such as the Youngstown Area Physics Alliance, Summer STEM for Minority Students and Project SEED which provide a platform for recruiting students from underrepresented groups to the research activities enabled by this instrument.Technical: The multi-disciplinary materials-related research activities at YSU and its industrial partners include wide-bandgap semiconductors for high power electronic and short wavelength optoelectronic devices, multilayered polymeric systems for various photonic applications, carbon nanotubes for chemical and biological sensor applications, ceramic-metallic composites for military combat applications, and functional materials for micro-electro-mechanical systems. High density plasma etching offers a vital capability for fabricating the relevant functional device designs. The goal of this acquisition of the inductively-coupled plasma etching system is to support multidisciplinary research and education at YSU. Together with the existing state-of-the-art electron microscopy and lithography tools recently acquired at YSU, this equipment enables better understanding of the underlying structures of these materials in order to develop optoelectronic and nano/micro scale devices as well as elucidate the basic scientific processes governing the interaction of photons and charge carriers with nanometer size structures.