Cleanroom Equipment

The Microfabrication Cleanroom laboratory at UW Bothell includes various MEMS and CMOS fabrication instruments and equipment. Equipment is organized alphabetically with brief descriptions and images of the equipment from the lab.

Select a piece of equipment to navigate quickly

4-Point Probe Station and Source Meter

The 4-Point Probe Station and Source Meter (Signatone probe head and Keithley 2400) provides simple answers to sheet and bulk resistivity measurements of semiconductors. A V/I measurement is taken and recorded. The system uses the dual configuration test method of ASTM Standard F84-99 to compensate for errors in probe spacing and errors caused by proximity to the edge of the conducting layer. The standard range of the system is 1 miliohm up to 800K ohms-per-square.

DC/RF Sputterer

DC/RF Sputterer (Kurt J. Lesker Nano36) is an affordable, compact magnetron sputtering thin film deposition system. It is designed to accommodate two 2” magnetron sputtering sources with DC/RF sputtering capability.

  • Magnetron Sputtering Sources: two 2″ Cathodes
  • 300W RF Sputtering Power Supply
  • 1kW or 2kW DC Sputtering Power Supply
  • 2-Position DC or RF Switch
  • Film thickness monitor, FTM-2400
  • Up to an 8″ diameter substrate mounting plate

One single 8″ wafer or multiple smaller wafers can be held in place.

Fumehoods

Two fume Hoods in the cleanroom are used for photoresist spin coating and chemical processes, respectively. They safely remove fumes and vapors from the work area. The fume hoods are connected to dry air, DI water, and vacuum.

Furnace

Furnance (Thermco MB-71) is used for sintering, wet/dry oxidation, and diffusion process. It has four quartz tube that can be interchanged for n-doping, p-doping, oxidation, and general sintering process.

  • Operating temperature: 200 – 1200°C
  • Three temperature zone
  • Tube diameter: 4.5 inch
  • Tube length: 30 inches

Mask aligners

Mask aligners (OAI Model 204) are used in photolithographic processes to transfer a pattern from a mask to a photoresist coating on the substrate. The OAI Model 200 handles wafers up to 4″ in size, and is optimized for 365 nm wavelength.

The system can handle masks from 4ʺ×4ʺ to 5ʺ×5ʺ and is capable of resolution of 1µm structure with overlay accuracy of 0.2 µm. The system is mounted on air damping vibration table to facilitate alignment of very small structures.

Nikon E200 Trinocular Microscope

Optical microscopes are instruments designed to produce magnified visual or photographic images of small objects by having visible light passed through several lens.

The Nikon E200 microscope is equipped with Infinity ½ CMOS USB 2.0 Digital Camera (2.0 Megapixel, 1600 × 1200) and Lumenera software to capture and analyze images.

Parylene Coater

The Parylene Coater (SCS PDS 2010 Labcoter) vacuum deposition system is specifically designed to bring Parylene technology to the laboratory. Its size and portability make it the ideal choice for universities and research institutions looking to develop and design with Parylene conformal coatings.

As a high quality, compact coating unit, the PDS 2010 is well suited for a range of applications, including circuit boards, sensors, wafers, medical devices and elastomeric components for research, development and repair.

Probe Station

The Probe Station (Signatone H-150W) is a manual probe station designed for testing wafers, substrates, and electronic/photonic devices up to 4ʺ in diameter. It includes an aluminum base casting, a device stage with four inches of X-Y travel, a linear motion platen that can be raised and lowered using either a crank or a lever, and a microscope tower for mounting Stereozoom optics in a fixed position. The platen will accept up to six magnetic based micropositioners.

Profilometer

The Profilometer (DektakXT®) stylus profiler is used to measure a thin-film thickness and features a revolutionary design that enables unmatched repeatability of 4Ã… and up to 40% improved scanning speeds.

  • Stylus force: 1 to 15 mg with LIS 3 sensor
  • Vertical Resolution: 1Ã… (@ 6.55 μm range)
  • Stylus Raduis: 50 µm
  • Vision64 Operation and analysis software

Reactive Ion Etching

The Tegal 903e plasma dry etch semiconductor equipment is used in single-wafer dry etch of polysilicon, nitride, and silicon oxide for integrated circuit fabrication. By producing plasma from a neutral gas, it can etch diverse materials at a low temperature with aniosotropic etching profile.

Semiconductor Characterization System

The Semiconductor Characterization System (Keithley 4200-SCS) is a Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer, a fully integrated solution to characterize materials, processes, and semiconductor devices such as CMOS, FETs, and BJTs with high precision and sub-femtoamp resolution. The 4200-SCS offers a complete, embedded PC with Windows operating system and mass storage.

I-V Source Measure Unit (SMU)

  • ±210 V/100 mA or ±210 V/1 A modules
  • 100 fA measure resolution
  • 10 mHz – 10 Hz very low frequency capacitance measurements
  • 2 or 4-wire connections

C-V Multi-frequency Capacitance Unit (CVU)

  • AC impedance measurements (C-V, C-f, C-t)
  • 1 kHz – 10 MHz frequency range

±30 V (60 V differential) built-in DC bias, expandable to ±210 V (420 V differential)

Spin Coater

Spin Coater (MicroNano Tools KW-4A) is a compact and easy-to-use spin coater for precise and uniform deposition of thin films and coatings. Its rugged, vibration-free and portable design makes it a versatile tool for your research facility.

The KW-4A spin coater can be used to deposit metal oxide thin films, polymer coatings and metal organic thin films. The spin coater is supplied by its original brand vacuum chuck that can hold up to 4ʺ wafers. A two-stage spin process allows dispensing at low speed and homogenizing the coating at high speed.

Stage 1: 500 – 2000 rpm, Timer I: 2 – 18 Seconds (Adjustable)

Stage 2: 1300 – 8000 rpm, Timer II: 3 – 60 Seconds (Adjustable)

Vacuum Oven

The Vacuum Over (Fisherbrand Model 282) is designed to operate with reduced pressures and/or inert atmospheres, oven is equipped with separate vacuum and gas ports, each with its own control valve.

  • Capacity: 1.5 cu. ft. (0.04m3)
  • Temperature range: Ambient to 280°C (536°F)
  • Automatic time and temperature control withe LED display

Seven-day programmable timer can cycle the oven on or off up to eight times per day