High-specification nanofabrication equipment: enabling increased capability and capacity for electronics, spintronics, photonics, and bioelectronics.

2021年3月，利兹大学获得了其价值9600万英镑的威廉亨利布拉格爵士大楼的所有权，这将使物理与天文学学院和计算学院进入大学的东北区，毗邻化学学院，电子与电气工程学院，机械工程学院，土木工程学院和化学与过程工程学院。与此同时，大学还成立了布拉格材料研究中心，汇集了来自校园的200多名材料研究人员，以培养一个充满活力和创造力的科学家和工程师社区，以激发和促进突破性和跨学科的研究，以应对全球挑战。布拉格社区的核心是利兹纳米技术洁净室，成立于2002年，在过去的二十年里，它大大扩展了其活动，以支持整个大学的广泛研究，包括自旋电子，光电子和生物电子材料和器件。它现在也被外部工业和学术界广泛使用，并在过去十年中培训了200多名研究人员。洁净室目前正在迁入威廉亨利布拉格爵士大楼的新的、更大的、显著增强的住宿。这将使每日洁净室用户的最大数量增加两倍，并显著增强设备处理的环境和能力（例如，启用迄今为止不可能的气体化学）。730平方米的新设施是面向未来的（还有99平方米的休闲空间用于扩展），并按照最高规格建造，包括ISO 4（10级）规格和0.1摄氏度/小时的温度稳定性的隔间。还有8个10级层流湿工作台和31个安静的岛屿，用于振动敏感设备。这还配有20个用于易燃、腐蚀性和惰性气体的专用气体柜，以及相关的气体管道和阀歧管箱，以及使用点、通风和灾难性减排系统，并配有一个用于专用气体和氧气消耗的气体探测器网络。热和电子束蒸发、溅射和原子层沉积;离子束蚀刻;晶片和管芯键合、研磨和切割;快速热退火;电子和原子力显微镜和椭圆偏振法;以及测试和封装。所有这些都可用于单片零件（例如6 mm x 6 mm芯片），大多数可扩展到4”晶圆。该设备可供所有用户使用，使他们能够开发定制工艺。然而，目前缺乏反应气体蚀刻和沉积系统。该计划将通过提供以下设备来解决这一问题：1）一台硅深反应离子蚀刻机，可提供高纵横比和贯穿晶片的硅蚀刻。2)一个开放式负载，平行板反应离子蚀刻（RIE），这将被用来实现“聚四氟乙烯样”涂层，以帮助脱模过程中的微流体制造，并为浅介电蚀刻。3）一个电感耦合等离子体RIE干蚀刻范围广泛的材料，包括氧化物，氮化物，聚合物和难熔金属。4)高密度、等离子体增强化学气相沉积技术，可实现电介质包覆层涂层，例如用于光子波导。这些仪器将导致电子、光电子和自旋电子器件的制造，产量显著提高，器件/材料性能大大改善。工艺开发时间的大幅减少将带来直接的好处。它们还将使材料图案化，并在利兹实现以前根本无法设想的器件结构，为未来十年及以后的工程，物理，生物和医学科学研究奠定基础，并将其转化为工业。

In March 2021, the University of Leeds took ownership of its £96M Sir William Henry Bragg Building, which will bring the Schools of Physics & Astronomy, and Computing, into the North East quarter of the University, next to the Schools of Chemistry, Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Chemical & Process Engineering. In parallel, the University has established the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, which brings together more than 200 materials researchers from across campus to foster a vibrant and creative community of scientists and engineers to inspire and facilitate ground-breaking and interdisciplinary research to meet global challenges.At the heart of the Bragg community is the Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom, which was established in 2002, and over the last twenty years has significantly expanded its activities to support a breadth of research across the University, including spintronic, opto-electronic and bioelectronic materials and devices. It is now also used extensively by external industry and academia, and has led to the training of over 200 researchers over the last decade. The Cleanroom is currently moving into new, larger, and significantly enhanced accommodation in the Sir William Henry Bragg Building. This will triple the maximum number of daily Cleanroom users, and provide a significant enhancement in the environment and capabilities for device processing (e.g. enabling gas chemistries hitherto not possible). The 730 m2 new facility is future-proofed (with a further 99 m2 fallow space for expansion) and constructed to the highest levels of specification, including bays at ISO 4 (class 10) specification and temperature stability of 0.1 degC/hr. There are also eight class 10 lamina wet benches, and 31 quiet islands for vibration-sensitive equipment. This is accompanied by 20 specialist gas cabinets for flammable, corrosive and inert gases with associated gas pipes and valve manifold boxes, as well as point of use, vent and catastrophic abatement systems, accompanied by a gas detector network for specialist gases and O2 depletion.Current equipment includes: direct-write and mask-based photolithography; electron-beam lithography; thermal and electron-beam evaporation, sputtering and atomic layer deposition; ion beam etching; wafer and die bonding, lapping and dicing; rapid thermal annealing; electron and atomic force microscopy, and ellipsometry; and, test and packaging. All can be used for piece parts (e.g. 6 mm x 6 mm dies), with most being scalable to 4" wafers. The equipment is available to all users, and enables them to develop bespoke processes.However, there is currently a lack of reactive-gas etching and deposition systems. This programme will address this through the provision of:1) A silicon deep reactive ion etcher, providing high aspect ratio and through-wafer etching of silicon. 2) An open-load, parallel-plate reactive ion etcher (RIE), which will be used to realise 'teflon-like' coatings to aid demoulding during microfluidics fabrication, and for shallow dielectric etching.3) An inductively-coupled-plasma RIE for dry-etching a wide range of materials including oxides, nitrides, polymers and refractory metals. 4) High-density, plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition to enable coating with dielectric cladding layers, e.g. for photonic waveguides.These instruments will lead to the fabrication of electronic, optoelectronic and spintronics devices with significantly higher yields, and greatly improved device/materials properties. The substantial reductions in process development time will offer immediate benefit. They will also enable the patterning of materials, and realisation of device structures at Leeds that simply could not be contemplated previously, underpinning future research for the next decade and beyond across the engineering, physical, biological and medical sciences, and its translation to industry.